


An Off The Wall Romance

by ProfessorFlimflam



Category: Holby City
Genre: BAW - Berena Appreciation Week 2018, Berena Appreciation Week, F/F, Parkour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-06-28 09:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15704121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorFlimflam/pseuds/ProfessorFlimflam
Summary: Fleur surprises Serena by signing her up to a six week women’s parkour course, where she’sboundto meet some hot women. But most of the girls are young enough for her to be their mother, and she doesn’t get that particular vibe from the only other woman nearer her own age.But one of the girls drops out at the last minute, and her mother steps in to take her place. Bernie is Serena’s age, and fit in more ways than one. Serena has just six weeks to see if she can run, jump, vault, climb or leap into something more than just friendship with her.





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> For Berena Appreciation Week, the first part of a Parkour AU - there’s always a new way to get our ladies together!

“I’m telling you, Serena, parkour’s the hottest new thing, and it’s where you’ll _find_ all the hottest new things, too.” 

Fleur had been cajoling Serena for what seemed like hours. “I’ve read all about it: all shapes and sizes, every age, every level of fitness - look - _the most adaptable discipline on the planet, with skills to suit all body types, whether you’re a climber, a gymnast, a runner or even a couch potato_. Well, maybe you’re not a gymnast, but you’re not a couch potato either. And I’m reliably informed that there’s a higher than average ratio of women who love women (which is what we call ourselves these days - did you know?) than in any other sport - I’m not counting tennis, obviously. It’s the hobby of choice for today’s health conscious lesbian or bisexual.”

Serena rolled her eyes. “No labels, remember? Though women who love women doesn’t sound quite so restrictive, I suppose. Well, never mind that - honestly, can you really see me doing this? I don’t think so.”

“Well, too bad - I’ve already signed you up. You owe me a hundred quid, by the way.”

“You’ve done what? Fleur Fanshawe, tell me you’re joking!”

But Fleur was not joking, and she handed over a print out of the dates and location of the six week course with a mischievous smile.

“What have you got to lose? You’ll have a bit of fun, get a bit fitter, meet a few people and maybe even meet someone you want to get even _more_ physical with, if you get my drift?”

“Your drift is an avalanche, my dear - no-one could ever fail to get it!”

***

“I’m sorry, Mum - I just can’t - it’s too much. I’m just not ready yet.”

Charlotte’s shoulders sagged, and Bernie put an arm round her in a consoling hug.

“Hey, hey - it’s ok - you don’t need to do anything you don’t want to. I just thought it might be fun for you, but I can see it would be exactly the opposite. Come on, let’s go and get some coffee and a bit of cake, and we can head home if you like.”

Charlotte shrugged uncomfortably and said, “I might go off on my own for a bit if you don’t mind? I’m all right - I just feel like being alone. You get that, don't you?”

Bernie did indeed get it. She sighed internally. Her youngest child was so much like her that it sometimes hurt to see her working her way through things. Her social anxiety could sometimes stop her doing things she might otherwise enjoy, but Bernie knew that Charlotte had to do the hard work herself and find a way to get through it. She had hoped that this six week course of physical activity might help - with a focus on the physical, the social might not be too much of a worry - but seeing the other participants gathered round outside the building was enough to put the frighteners on her.

“Of course, darling - don't worry, I’m not offended. As long as you’re not following in my footsteps and hotfooting it to Afghanistan!”

Charlotte gave her a watery smile, and after a tight hug, Bernie waved her off with a reminder to call her if she needed anything.

She jogged over to the gym where the others were waiting, and slipped inside. Seeing a small and very muscular young woman at the desk, she gave a little cough.

“Hi - I was looking for Daisy?”

The woman turned round, a friendly smile on her face.

“Ah - you must be Charlotte! Great - we’re all here, then.”

Bernie raised a hand and said, “No - no, Charlotte’s my daughter. I’m ever so sorry, but she’s had to drop out - I just wanted to let you know.”

Daisy looked concerned. “Oh what a shame - is she ok?”

“Kind of. She will be. She gets a bit anxious with people she doesn’t know, and I think it was a bit much seeing everyone here already. She’s gone off to have a bit of quiet time now instead. I should have got here here earlier,” she berated herself.

An understanding look on her face, Daisy nodded. “New people can be a challenge, can’t they, especially in a big group. Maybe we can look at doing something with her on a one to one basis?” She looked at her watch. “Look - I need to get this group off to a start now, but give me a call later if she’s interested and we’ll see what we can do. In fact,” she said as a thought occurred to her, “why don’t you stay for the session, if your daughter’s all right on her own? The place is paid for, and it’s always good to have an even number. Will you be our number eight?”

“Me?” Bernie laughed. She looked around the gym, where a few people were playing around on the equipment. It wasn’t like any gym she’d ever seen before, and she took it in for a moment, then turned back to Daisy with a grin.

“All right - why not!”

***

There were seven of them waiting outside including herself, and as Fleur had told Serena, they came in all shapes and sizes. She was relieved to find that although she might be the oldest participant there, there was at least one woman, Mo, who she thought might be over forty, and and as for size, they ranged from a positively skinny girl in her teens to the far more generously proportioned Mo, who introduced herself as “the fatty of the group - but I can still move it when I want to!” Skinny little Meena looked horrified that Mo had even mentioned her size, but Serena liked her attitude - being on the larger end of the spectrum didn’t mean you weren’t fit, and it was naïve to think that no-one might be thinking otherwise.

Before Serena had a chance to memorise all the new names, the final member of the group, a tall blonde woman around her own age, came strolling over from inside the gym with Daisy, who introduced herself and, leaning on the low wall between them, welcomed them all to The Hop Shed. Once home to a brewery, now it hosted a different kind of hopping altogether, Daisy joked.

“We're a bit different from the average gym,” she explained. “You won’t find rowing machines or treadmills here, and a lot of our members have never worn a leotard in their life! We're all about functional fitness - being strong in order to be useful. We don’t care if you can bench press two hundred pounds - were much more excited if you can lift your own body over obstacles.”

And demonstrating her point, she cleared the waist height wall with apparently no effort. Unimpressed, Meena rolled her eyes and muttered to Nicky that she could do that “with her eyes closed,” but Serena was delighted with the fluidity of the movement, and exclaimed how easy Daisy had made it look.

“That was what we call a Lazy Vault, and we’ll have you all doing it by the end of the six weeks,” Daisy said confidently, “but first things first. Let’s get to know each other a little bit. Why don’t you all tell us your name and why you wanted to learn parkour? Maybe you’d like to kick us off.” She smiled encouragingly at a slim, self-assured young woman with her hair pulled back into a plait.

“Hi. I’m Zosia, and I'm here because I wanted to do something to get a full body workout. I do lots of running and I keep picking up little niggles, so I want to be a bit stronger generally to protect myself from injury.”

Daisy nodded. “Parkour’s the perfect activity to complement running! How about you?” She gestured at the next person.

“Hiya! I’m Jasmine, and I want to do all the really cool stuff - leap tall buildings with a single bound, all that ninja stuff!” She struck a pose, and everyone laughed.

“Well, we’ll be teaching you some of the cool stuff, but maybe not the tall buildings just yet, eh? Working at height is the glamorous stuff that you see on YouTube, but everything we do starts as ground level. But yes - there are some nice little tricks we can show you.”

Next was Morven, who had come along because “ _She_ dragged me kicking and screaming!” Even Jasmine laughed at the pantomimed dirty look Morven shot her, and nodded ruefully.

It was a similar story for Nicky, who had been persuaded by Meena, though she seemed happier to be there than Morven. Meena herself introduced herself with a little flounce that was almost a curtesy, and explained, “well, I'm a really good gymnast, so this will come naturally to me - it’s basically the same thing but outdoors, really, just not as disciplined.”

Daisy, who had been all smiles so far, tensed at this, but schooled herself to keep her voice friendly. “Well, the international gymnastics federation would certainly like to think so, but we’ve less in common than you might think. And I don’t think you’ll ever meet anyone as disciplined as a parkour practitioner. It sounds as though we’ve got a few more myths to dispel!”

Meena didn’t seem remotely aware that she had been chastised, but Serena had sensed Daisy’s irritation and made a note not to mention gymnastics. Mo wanted to get in shape and meet some new people, and Bernie - hallelujah, someone her own age! - had taken her daughter’s place at the last minute. _Thank goodness for that_ , thought Serena, _a couple of people who might be even less fit than I am!_

When Daisy turned to her, she stuttered a little - she couldn’t very well say she was there to pick up women, and she hadn’t really thought about what she was going to say.

“I’m Serena, and I, er… I… Well, a friend booked me on the course and I was going to bail, but then I thought, there’s life in the old dog yet!” 

The group’s laughter was warm and friendly, and she couldn’t help but be struck by Bernie’s bark of a laugh, which set them off again. She glanced round the group, thinking that they seemed like a nice enough bunch with the possible exception of the brat, but she would have to tell Fleur that she had wasted a hundred pounds for her. Most of these girls were young enough to be her own daughter, and she didn’t pick up any sort of vibe about Mo. Bernie was certainly a striking woman (very striking, actually), and she might have wondered about her, but for the fact that she was evidently married - or at least, she was a family woman. Maybe there would be other women to meet at the gym over the next few weeks.

However, they didn’t venture into the gym at all. Daisy had them playing scissor, paper, stone as a warm up: the winner of each round sprinting to the end of the car park and back, and the loser dropping to the floor for a push up followed by a jump in the air (“it’s actually called a burpee,” Meena supplied helpfully), which got the heart pumping and the group laughing. Once they were sufficient warmed up, Daisy took them through a few mobility drills to get their joints moving freely, and Serena began to wonder if she’d last until they got to the actual exercises.

While they got their breath back and took a swig of water, Daisy introduced Katie, another coach who would be working with them throughout the course. _That’s more like it_ , thought Serena, looking admiringly at Katie’s lightly muscled shoulders, the slight swagger in her step. Here was a like-minded woman, surely - still on the young side for her, but unmistakably a wlw, as Fleur had told her the cool kids were saying these days.

“Who wants to tell me what you think parkour is?” Katie was asking. 

Serena wasn't surprised to see Meena’s hand shoot up, and without waiting for the nod, she reeled off, “Parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement and other movements as deemed most suitable for the situation.”

“Textbook definition!” Katie exclaimed. “Well - Wikipedia definition, if I'm not mistaken. All of that’s true, but I think of it more as playing for grown ups.” There was a ripple of laughter from seven of the women, and a petulant little frown from Meena. “No, no - I’m serious! People think of it as this high octane extreme sport, but playfulness is at the heart of it - movement for the joy of it. Do you remember when you were a kid, jumping across the stream rather than using the bridge? Or seeing how many stairs you could take in one go? Swinging from monkey bars to cover the grand distance of ten feet? None of those ways of getting from A to B were easier or quicker than the alternative, but they were more fun, weren’t they? When did you last do something like that for the fun of it?”

It was a refreshing way to think about physical activity, which Serena had really never thought of as _fun_ before, but Katie was right - why should any of them stop playing just because they were older now? It looked as though she wasn’t the only one feeling her age: she noticed Bernie stretching her back, bending first to one side then the other.

“So let’s have a bit of fun now, shall we? We’re not going to go straight to the fancy vaults - we’re not going to run before we can walk. In fact, what do you learn to do before you walk?”

“Crawl?” Mo offered.

“Exactly! That’s the quadrupedal movement you talked about - Meena, is it? We tend to call it QM for short, but it’s basically getting about on all fours.” 

Serena couldn’t help emitting a dirty little snort at the term _all fours_ , and although the sanctimonious Meena rolled her eyes, Serena caught Bernie smirking at her, and gave her a little wink.

Katie demonstrated good QM technique, keeping her hips low and level, her knees never touching the ground, and set them to crossing the grassy area in front of the gym in two lines.

“QM to the edge, then jog back to the start and go again. As soon as you’ve got room, follow the person in front of you. Go!”

The four youngest members of the group set off at a terrific pace in one line, with Mo, Zosia, Bernie and Serena making up the second line. Mo set off at a fairly slow pace, as Katie gave her a few little prompts about her posture, and they followed on one after the other. Glad that they were not racing like the other group, Serena shook her shoulders out before getting ready to crouch down, and found herself at eye level with Bernie’s perfect posterior. Well, that was a nice perk, she though to herself, but as soon as she was moving, she only had the energy to concentrate on putting one hand in front of the other without getting her feet tangled up.

Once they had all gone twice, Katie got them doing the same thing but backwards, which required even more concentration, and she smiled to herself as the younger girls ended up in a heap as they tried to outdo each other. Mo waved the others past her, aware that she was holding them up, but Katie explained that in parkour, everyone went at the pace of the slowest as a matter of course.

“It’s not a competitive sport: there’s nothing to win or lose by going faster. It’s much better to get the technique right and go slowly,” she said with a sideways glance at the youngsters. Inevitably, though, once Mo had completed her length, the group sped up a little, and Serena was startled to see how easily Bernie was moving. She looked as comfortable as though she were strolling, her body low to the ground, and somehow her long legs managed the awkward reverse manoeuvre without her needing to raise her hips at all, whereas Serena was horribly aware that she kept sticking her bum up in the air.

“You’re good at that!” She panted at the end, rolling her shoulders.

Bernie smiled. “I used to do lots of assault course training - I learned to keep low to get under the nets without snagging my pack on them.”

“Assault courses? What a masochist! You’re probably fitter than the rest of us put together, I should think.”

“Hardly! I’ve got a couple of injuries I need to be careful with - this might be make or break, this course!” Bernie joked.

“Let’s hope its _make_ , then, for all of us.”

*** 

By the end of the three hour session, Daisy and Katie had really put the women through their paces. In addition to the QM, they had spent a focussed half hour taking it in turns to make very precise jumps from the road to the kerb, aiming to land with just their toes on the pavement to absorb the force of the landing, which was harder than it looked. Daisy had talked about the importance of getting the fundamental skills absolutely spot on, however unadventurous it seemed at this stage.

The jumping had been followed up with some strength and conditioning work, alternating between push ups against the low wall, abdominal crunches and underbar rows, which Katie assured them was the first step on the arduous road to being able to do a full pull-up. Throughout the evening, the omen had stayed more or less in the same groupings as they had during the QM exercise, and although Zosia had perhaps seemed a little aloof, Serena had enjoyed the company of the two older women. After a cool down and stretch, Daisy sat them all down on the grass and gave them a final few words of caution as they eagerly reached for their water bottles.

“As I said at the beginning, we never do anything at height that we haven’t done a thousand times at ground level,” she said. “Those rooftop chases that you see are the result of the kind of work we’ve been doing, but practised and built up over many, many months and years. And everything we do is scalable, too. Some people will want to make the big jumps, some will find it a challenge to nail the little ones. Each is as valid as the other: you’re not in competition with yourself, only with your own fears. Fear is something we’ll be working on with you over the next few weeks - and remember, everyone’s fears, just as much as everyone’s strengths, are different.”

“Like there’s anything to be scared of jumping onto the kerb a million times,” Meena muttered scathingly to Nicky, who had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“And parkour is above all a supportive discipline,” Daisy continued calmly, as though she hadn’t heard. “We don’t laugh at anyone’s fears, we don’t mock people when they don’t get things right first time, and we make progress together. Think _community_ rather than competition and you'll get the right idea.”

“I like the sound of that,” Serena said to Bernie as they walked back to the car park afterwards. “Community over competition, I mean. Does that make me a sad old hippy?”

“Not at all! Though I'm not sure Olga Korbut over there would agree,” she said, nodding in Meena’s direction. “She seems to think it’s a competition she’s already won.”

Serena laughed comfortably. “Ah, the arrogance of youth. She’ll learn.”

Laughing, Bernie agreed. “She will - if I have to teach her myself!”

“You’re coming back for more, then? I wasn’t sure if you were just doing it today, because your daughter couldn’t make it.”

Bernie smiled at her as she unlocked her car. “Oh, I think I’ll see it though if my back lets me - it was fun this evening, wasn’t it?”

“It really was. See you next week, then.”

“Goodnight.”

Driving home, Serena smiled to herself, still a little bit high on endorphins. It didn’t look as though she was going to meet the love of her life at this group, but maybe she would make a couple of good friends. She was already looking forward to next week.


	2. Flowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second class introduces new skills and new challenges. Serena finds working with bars and railings strangely familiar, and Bernie rises to a challenge - but not everyone is as impressed as Serena.

She couldn’t think why it should be so, but Serena was far more nervous this week than she had been before the first session. It was silly, really - she at least had some idea of what to expect now, and she had liked the instructor and most of the other women on the course, but as she pulled her jogging bottoms on, she had to give herself a stern little talking to.

“Just because it took you four days to stop aching, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it - you’re just a bit out of shape.”

Everything they had done in the first session had been reasonably straightforward, though the crawling backwards had been a bit of a challenge. Poor Bernie, she thought, having to follow Serena’s arse up and down the length of the lawn! She had been practising that move at home during the intervening week, and thought she was doing a bit better at keeping her hips lower to the ground. Jumping to the kerb and landing exactly as Daisy had demonstrated had been different, though - she had tried it once or twice, but felt so self-conscious about it that she had given up and scurried off before anyone could ask why a middle aged woman was hopping on and off the pavement like a deranged sparrow.

So it was with a little trepidation that she pulled into the Hop Shed’s car park on Wednesday evening, hoping that she would be able to remember at least some of what she had learned the previous week.

“Serena!”

As she got out of the car she heard someone calling her name, and looked up to see Mo waving at her enthusiastically. She locked up and made other way over to the grassy area in front of the gym where Mo was waiting for her, a bottle of water in hand.

“I’m relieved to see you - I got here early and no-one was here. I was worried I might be the only one daft enough to come back for more!”

Serena grimaced. “Well, I have to admit, I have been questioning my sanity, and I did have to give myself a little pep talk to get me into the car this evening. Safety in numbers, though, hey?” She bumped Mo’s elbow with her own. “Truth be told, I’m glad to see you as well - I actually had a nightmare earlier in the week that I turned up and it was just me and Nadia Comaneci!”

“Nadia who? Is that her off the Bake Off?” Mo looked confused.

“Oh dear - am I showing my age even more than I thoughtI was? Nadia Comaneci - the Romanian gymnast? She was big in the Olympics in... oh, must have been 1980, I think. I meant Meena, the little gymnast from last week - kept saying how easy everything was, damn her!”

Mo rolled her eyes. “Oh, that little madam. Yeah, she didn’t exactly win me over last week, either. Maybe she won’t bother coming back if it’s all so easy for her.”

But she did come back, as did the rest of the group. They fell naturally into the same groups as they had the previous week, with the four youngsters greeting each other enthusiastically, and Bernie making a beeline for Serena and Mo. Zosia was the last to arrive, and she stood slightly aloof from both groups. Something inside the gym seemed to have caught her attention, and she craned her neck a little, trying to peer inside, but just then Daisy and Katie came outside, letting the door swing shut behind them.

“Good evening, ladies!” Daisy greeted them with a bright smile. “Is everyone here? Great! Let’s start off with a slow jog around the edge of the car park to warm up: once forwards, once jogging backwards, and once sidestepping. Off you trot!”

Katie led the way to make sure they didn’t go off too quickly, and although the first lap felt like a bit of a plod, they were all glad of the slow pace when it came to jogging backwards, which didn’t come naturally to many of them, and they laughed as they tripped over their own feet, necks craning round to see if they were about to bump into each other or any obstacles. Sidestepping was a breeze after that, and Katie took them through a couple of mobility exercises, swinging their arms in ever wider circles, and rotating their wrists with fingers interlaced.

“And because in parkour there’s no such thing as your good side or your bad side, let’s do the same thing in the opposite direction - that’s it, trace a figure of eight with the thumb that’s on top. Harder than it looks, isn’t it, going the other way?”

Daisy cut in, “You’ll find you favour one leg to take off from, one hand to lead, one arm that you’ll want to take more of your weight, but once you’re moving quickly from obstacle to obstacle, you need to be able to jump, land, swing and so in with whichever side is in the right place at the right time - sometimes a jump will need you to take off on your less dominant foot, so we train everything on both sides. It’s great to help prevent imbalance injuries, and it’s brilliant for the brain as well - think of all those neural pathways you’re creating by learning new skills!”

As they finished the warm up, Daisy gave them a quick recap of last week’s learning.

“So we covered some of the basics last week, right? A little bit of QM - who can remember what that stands for? Yep, quadrilateral movement, or using both hands and feet to cover the ground. And we started with precision jumps, focussing on soft, clean landings. We’ll keep coming back to that - it’s one of the basic building blocks of parkour. But this six week course is intended to be a taster of parkour, so we’re going to be discovering a new element each week, and this week we’re going to be looking at bar work and flow.”

“I like the sound of that,” Serena nudged Bernie with her elbow. “Anyone who works in the bar near my place knows to keep it flowing,” she joked with a wink.

“Working on and around railings is a big part of parkour, and we’re going to start on that tonight. You can find rails to walk along, vault over, swing from and generally play with all over the place - but we’re going to start inside today, where we’ve got some bits and pieces all set up to play around with, so come on in!”

***

The inside of the gym was very different from anything Serena had seen before. No treadmills or rowers, no elliptical trainers or stair climbers, and none of the resistance machines she was used to (well, perhaps _used to_ wasn’t quite the right expression). Instead there was an area of free weights with great heavy-looking plates to add to Olympic bars, a long leather punchbag suspended from thick chains, a couple of enormous tractor tyres and several pieces of equipment she couldn’t even begin to name. But the most striking feature of the Hop Shed was a sprawling structure of scaffolding poles set at varying heights and angles. As the eight of them traipsed in after Daisy and Katie, several people finished what they were working on and dropped to the floor to clear the space for the group.

Serena felt Bernie nudge her, and followed her pointed look towards Zosia. The young woman was watching transfixed as a slender but muscular woman pulled herself up to the highest bar, swung backwards and forwards a couple of times, then launched herself into the air, landing impossibly on the balls of her feet on a rail some six or seven feet off the ground. She crouched there for a second or two, balanced perfectly, just her two long black plaits swaying to betray the force of the manoeuvre, then, grasping the bar with both hands, she swung down and strolled casually off the padded matting beneath and took a swig of water from a bottle she had left at the edge.

“Somebody’s got a crush,” Bernie murmured _sotto voce_. For while the woman’s aerobatics had been impressive, the look on Zosia’s face was once of quite a different sort of admiration.

Serena surreptitiously looked Zosia up and down. She hadn’t picked up a vibe from her last week, but then the young woman seemed very private: there was something very reserved and poised about her. But Bernie was right - there was no mistaking the starry look in her eyes as she followed the movements of the woman, who was now wiping her hands on a towel and greeting a friend over in the weights area - but not without throwing a curious glance over her shoulder at Zosia.

“I do believe you’re right,” Serena whispered back. “Our dark horse is showing her true colours!” She had been relieved to note Bernie’s relaxed and almost amused attitude. Zosia was much too young for her, and there was no-one else in the group apart from the two of them and Mo within what she felt was an acceptable age bracket for herself, but it was still good to know that her new friends were open minded.

Daisy had them follow each other on a route through the jungle of bars, rails and uprights, encouraging them to step or jump over the lower rails, climb over or duck under the higher ones, and swing from the upright poles and the overhead bars. Jasmine led them off, and they made up their own moves as they went.

“Can’t remember the last time I played follow my leader - it’s still fun, isn’t it?” Mo said, excitement evident in her voice.

Serena had to agree. She felt ever so lightly foolish clambering over the rails, and was very aware of how she must look as she followed behind Zosia to crawl under a little platform, bum up in the air, but when it came to the upright lengths of scaffolding, she felt a sudden leap of familiarity. She remembered with a giddy sort of thrill how she and Siân had once played up to each other at a club they used to frequent in their wicked youth, writhing and swinging round a pole in the middle of the dance floor, and she swung happily round the poles now, a knee hooked round for stability as she leaned outwards, her trailing hand practically skimming the floor.

Bernie, following on behind, gave a low whistle, and muttered, “Now who’s the dark horse, Serena?”

Serena blushed, but laughed at herself quite readily. “Not the svelte young thing I was last time I tried that,” she admitted ruefully, but Bernie demurred.

“Well, you looked spectacular from where I’m standing!”

“Oh, shush!” Serena laughed, but she couldn’t help feeling flattered. Such a shame Bernie was straight, she thought, not for the first time.

They went round the scaffolding rig again, this time with Meena leading. While she had been able to manage pretty much all the moves that Jasmine had come up with, Meena seemed determined to show off her prowess on the bars, and Serena wasn’t the only one who had to adapt the movements. Meena was such a little thing, she couldn’t imagine how she had managed to leap up to grab the bar above their heads, let alone make that swinging leap across to the next bar, and only Bernie, with her obstacle course experience, was able to replicate it.

“It doesn’t matter if you can’t all manage the exact same movements,” Daisy reassured them, “Don’t forget everything is scalable, and you work to your own limits. The important thing is to learn how to adapt movements to your own abilities.”

Meena, the little madam as Mo had called her, looked positively smug at having found something that practically no-one else could manage. _She really doesn’t endear herself_ , Serena thought, lips pursed in a little _moué_ of disapproval.

“Ignore her,” Bernie muttered in her ear. “If she needs to show off to feel good about herself, that’s her problem.”

As they took a little breather, Katie chatted with them about how they had found the little game - what they had found difficult, what they had enjoyed about it - and explained that quite without instruction, they had naturally employed some important techniques.

“So we saw some climbing to get over the high bits and some QM to get under. That little bunny hop that Jasmine did on the first go round? That’s basically a vault - we’ll show you later how you can develop that into a lazy vault, a kash vault or even a fancy bit of work called a palm spin. And Meena and Bernie managed a bit of brachiation - swinging, to you and me. And Serena - nice work on the uprights! Really fluid and graceful - well done.”

“Hah! Still got it!” Serena couldn’t help preening a little, and the group laughed warmly with her.

***

Now that they had built up a little bit of confidence moving around the scaffolding, Daisy talked to them about flow: the fluidity that Serena had displayed as she swung round the poles, but extended to all their movements.

“You want to try and think of your movements as a sentence or a paragraph, rather than just a collection of words. When you speak, you know which word you’re going to say next - you don’t pick one word, then another word, then another word. Think of your movement the same way: not a series of one movement, then another, then another, but pace yourself so that one movement flows in the next, into the next, and so on. Let’s try it.”

She demonstrated a very short route, stepping over a bar with one hand supporting her for balance, ducking as she stepped under the next rail, and then swinging round an upright pole with a little leap that took both feet off the ground, landing neatly a couple of feet away from it.

They followed her through the route once, twice, three times, each time concentrating on linking the movements together smoothly, then she led them through it again, but added a couple of extra stages. So it went on for the next twenty minutes until they had covered the whole area, and were really developing a good flow. It came more easily to some than to others, but they had all made definite progress.

“You remember we talked about starting to work on vaulting?” Katie asked them. “Well - good news. You’ve just been doing a step vault - and every one of you managed it. That little move you did just here?” She stood next to the little platform of scaffolding planks that they had climbed over. “The move that Daisy took you through, where you stepped up with one foot while leaning on the opposite hand, and then you brought the other leg through - that’s a step vault. We did it slowly, but when you build up a bit of speed and introduce a little dynamism, this is what it looks like.”

She took a couple of paces back, then demonstrated the move at a smooth running pace. She made it look so easy, but as they tried it in turn, isolated and slightly more quickly than they had done it the first time round, more than one of the women balked at it, somehow finding it more challenging now that they knew it was a vault. They practiced it on each side, first stepping up with the left foot, then with the right, then alternating as they went through the move again and again.

“Now, let’s do our original route one more time, but a little bit quicker, and when you get to the step vault, let’s see you go straight into it without breaking the flow if you can. Remember to pace yourself so that you don’t need to suddenly slow down to manage it - remember, think of the route as a sentence, not just words. Let’s go!”

***

“Okay!” Daisy called them back together and encouraged to give themselves a little round of applause.

“Great work, ladies - well done! Take a few minutes to get your breath back, have a swig of water if you need to, and we’ll finish with some strength and conditioning. We’re going to start building up your upper body strength, and get you used to hanging on to a bar, get your hands toughened up a bit. Who here can do a full pull up?”

Three or four hands went up.

“If you can’t manage a pull up, go for a dead hang - literally just hanging onto the bar - and alternate between an active and a passive hang.” Daisy jumped up to grab the bar far above her head and demonstrated the difference between the two positions, pulling her shoulder blades down and squeezing them together to engage her lats and traps for an active hang, and relaxing them for the passive version.

A few of the women managed some form of pull up, with Meena, Bernie and Zosia making it look easy, and Jasmine giving it a good go, though her legs were kicking all over the place. Morven was the first to drop to the ground, her hands slipping on the rail before she even had a chance to grip properly. Even though Daisy encouraged her to hop up again, her confidence was shaken, and she only managed a few seconds. Mo whooped with pride at not being the first to go, and her pleasure was doubled a few seconds later when Nicky let go with an exasperated howl of frustration.

“My hands are too sweaty!” she laughed. Mo hung on for a few moments more, then dropped neatly to the floor and gave Nicky a little high five.

Serena was next, and was as happy as Mo not to have disgraced herself. Everyone else managed at least an approximation of a pull up, though Jasmine only got her chest up to the bar once before settling in to hang from the bar while Zosia, Meena and Bernie carried on with their pull ups.

When Zosia hopped down citing sore hands, Daisy suggested a change up for the two remaining participants

“Let’s try sets of five pull ups with a minute’s rest in between.”

Still, neither Bernie nor Meena showed any real sign of fatigue. Katie stepped over to the weights area and returned with a weighted vest in each hand, and a challenging smirk on her face.

A couple of rounds later, Meena started to show signs of strain, as she found it harder and harder to bring her chest to the bar with the extra weight, but Bernie just kept going.

“Tell you what,” Katie challenged, looking at Bernie during the next rest, “Let’s even things up a bit - Daisy, why don’t you hop on?” Bernie laughed and rolled her eyes, but she unbuckled the weighted vest and offered her back to the coach for a piggy back.

Daisy grinned in delight at the recognition of a kindred spirit in Bernie, and as they took a break from their efforts, she took a moment to check in with Bernie, making sure that her shoulders and lats were up to the challenge. But she had seen how easily Bernie had been lifting her own body weight, and when the sixty second buzzer went, she jumped up, and wrapping her arms over Bernie’s shoulders, took a firm grip around her waist with her thighs, and Bernie made the little leap to grasp the bar, and began the next set of five reps with just a little grunt of effort.

But Serena could see how Bernie’s muscles were working that much harder, and held her breath as she watched the sweat roll down from her shoulders to the fabric of her top. She mentally put herself in Daisy’s place for a moment. Thighs clamped around Bernie’s waist, arms around her shoulders, her body pressed up close to her back, and her face tickled by that glorious blond hair… she was glad that she had the excuse of exertion to explain away her flushed face. _Damn, why does she have to be straight!_ Serena asked herself ruefully.

It took her a moment to register that the noise around her was not the rushing of blood in her ears, but the little group cheering and applauding Bernie, and she saw that Meena had conceded defeat - or at least, she was back on the ground, a scowl darkening her face. Bernie made one last effort and pulled up to the bar with Daisy on her back, then nodded with a little grunt to let Daisy know she was done. The coach leapt nimbly down to the floor, and Bernie followed suit, rolling her shoulders with a great grin on her face.

She turned to Meena still smiling, exclaiming, “Well! You certainly gave me a run for my money! Well done you!” She raised a hand to high five the girl, but Meena turned her back very deliberately on her and stalked off. Furious, Serena stepped in and reached for Meena’s elbow, intent on giving her a piece of her mind, but Bernie caught her arm.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Let’s not make it harder for her, eh? It’s not our job to teach the kid manners.”

“Somebody needs to,” Serena grumbled, but she stood down, and instead of going for Meena, she clapped Bernie on the back. “That was really something, I have to say!”

“Thanks - I’m sure I’ll regret it tomorrow,” Bernie laughed, stretching her shoulders out, “But it was a lot of fun. Very satisfying to know I can still do it after all this time.”

“Oh? You’ve not been racing for a while?” Serena enquired politely, wondering if racing was the right word to use for the kind of obstacle course events that Bernie was so good at.

“Racing?” Bernie looked baffled. “No, I mean basic training. I haven’t had to carry weight like that since I resigned my commission.”

“Your commission? You were in the Army? That explains it! When you said something about obstacle courses last week I thought you meant all that Tough Mudder stuff that seems to be the mid-life crisis of choice these days.”

“I don’t think I said obstacle course,” Bernie said mildly. “Assault course, maybe. I got used to doing them with a fully loaded kit bag, and I’m sure Daisy’s nowhere near as heavy as that - I was cheating, really!”

Mo chipped in, “Don’t let _her_ hear you say that.” She nodded over at Meena, who was sulking in a corner as Nicky, who had evidently been taking her to task over her bad behaviour rolled her eyes and walked away from her. Turning to Bernie, Mo asked, “She’ll demand a rematch. Do _you_ know who Nadia Com… Comma - what was it again?”

Bernie laughed, a great guffaw that she tried unsuccessfully to repress. “I think you mean Nadia Comaneci - yes, I do. Montreal and Moscow. Serena, I do believe you’ve been corrupting people!”

Serena gave an innocent _who, me?_ look, and was saved from having to defend herself as Katie took them through a brief cool down and stretch session.

“Meena and Bernie, make sure you do some extra stretching when you get home - you hung on for a long time and you’re going to know all about it in the morning if you’re not careful. Right then, ladies - you’re done! Well done - lots of new stuff tonight. More of the same next week!”

As they made their way back outside, Zosia took a last lingering look back into the gym, and when she turned back, a little smile played on her lips.

“You’re right, I think - definitely one to watch,” Serena said to Bernie, who glanced back to see what she was talking about. “I don’t know that I would guessed, though, would you?”

“That she’s gay? Or however she describes herself? Oh, I don’t know - there’s a lot of us about - we don’t all look like Sue Perkins, you know! Anyway - see you next week?”

Bernie stepped into her car and pulled out of the car park with a wink and a wave. Serena waved back absent-mindedly, her mouth slightly agape.

“Oh dear,” she said faintly. “Oh very dear indeed.”


	3. Balancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serena learns that her skills with an upright pole don’t necessarily translate to balancing on a horizontal one, and Meena continues to alienate the group: even the loyal Nicky is getting tired of her nonsense. Serena learns a bit more about Bernie’s family, and even meets Charlotte - who is fascinated to see how the two women interact.

Bernie didn’t know what had possessed her to tell Serena she was gay. Well, she did. Better to get it out there at the first mention of the topic, she thought, otherwise it might look as though she had held back out of - what? embarrassment? And she didn’t harbour the least bit of embarrassment or shame about her sexuality - not anymore, though that hadn’t always been true. 

But she couldn’t deny that she was amused and a little intrigued at Serena’s interest in Zosia’s evident crush on the woman with the plaits. She wondered whether Serena’s curiosity was merely prurient speculation, or if there might be more to it than that. It hadn’t sounded malicious, anyway, and that was something to be glad about. She liked Serena, had warmed to her immediately. 

It was a nice little group altogether, really. Mo was a lot of fun, and Zosia seemed pleasant enough: Bernie liked the young woman’s workmanlike attitude. The real youngsters in the other half of the group were rather less focussed, but they had a fizzing energy that Bernie really enjoyed. She herself was finding huge enjoyment in experiencing the joy and fun of movement again, and the kids seemed to have it in spades.

Well, she thought, most of them did. Meena didn’t seem to be having much fun. She had taken the little challenge last week so seriously, but it wasn’t in Bernie’s nature to _let_ someone win, however desperately they wanted to. She certainly hadn’t brought Cameron and Charlotte up to think everything should come easily to them, though she rather suspected that Meena’s parents had a different philosophy. Hopefully her fit of pique would have blown over by now: it had only been a bit of fun, at least for Bernie. If she was honest with herself, she had quite enjoyed showing off her strength. It was gratifying to know that she could still do it, especially after the way her army career had ended, and it always gave her a kick to see the surprise on people’s faces when a skinny fifty-something year old pulled out moves like that.

Bernie looked up as she heard heavy footsteps running down the stairs, and Charlotte stuck her head round the door.

“Are you ready, Mum? I think we’d better go before I change my mind.”

She gave a shaky little laugh, and Bernie smiled at her. “All right, hero, let’s go.”

***

Daisy was waiting for them as they pulled into the car park at the Hop Shed.

“Hi Bernie! And this must be Charlotte - it’s good to meet you at last! How are you feeling about the session today? I expect Mum’s told you a bit about what to expect?”

Charlotte nodded. “She has. I’m looking forward to it,” she said a little shyly. “I’m sorry about the group, about letting you down before.”

Daisy bumped her shoulder, and said, “You didn’t let anyone down, and you’re here now, aren’t you? I’m really glad you decided to give it a go. Come on, let’s get warmed up with a little jog, and I’ll tell you a bit about parkour and what I’ve got planned for today while we’re on the move.”

Charlotte and Bernie left their jackets just inside the door of the gym, and the three of them set off at a gentle pace.

***

By the end of the ninety minute session, Charlotte’s eyes were shining with exhilaration, and Bernie’s with pride at how far her daughter had come out of her comfort zone.

“Good work, Charlotte!” Daisy said, giving her a fist bump. “How do you feel about coming back for another session next week?”

Charlotte looked round at her mother and grinned. “Can I? I'd really like to.”

Bernie laughed. “Of course you can - shall I keep coming with you, or do you think you might prefer to come on your own?”

“Do you mind coming with me? It’s really nice to do stuff together, just you and me.”

Slinging an arm around her daughter’s shoulder, Bernie agreed. “It is, isn’t it? All right, we’ll make it a regular date, shall we?”

They made arrangements with Daisy for the following weekend, and headed off for lunch at Charlotte’s favourite burger place. 

***

Half an hour later, Serena parked her car, picked up her water bottle and a towel from the passenger seat and walked into the gym. She gave Daisy a little wave, and the coach jogged over to greet her.

“Hi Serena, glad you made it down here. Are you ready to make a start? Let’a warm up a bit and then I’ll show you how to use the weights and take you through some basic drills.”

Serena trotted dutifully after her, gulping at the array of bars and weights, wondering what on earth she was getting herself into. Elinor had scoffed at the whole enterprise - the thought of her “boring, middle-aged mother” (Serena preferred not to recall that she had added the word _staid_ for good measure) prancing about on walls and scaffolding, and now the weightlifting… Perhaps Elinor was right: she was having an embarrassing midlife crisis and was just making a fool of herself.

“Okay, just pop your things down here and we’ll make a start. I think you’re very smart, by the way, putting in these strength sessions - they should really help with your parkour practice.”

Serena huffed a little. “That’s not what my daughter says - apparently I’m a sad old bag having a midlife crisis,” she said. 

Daisy tutted. “Well, that’s nonsense, no offence to your daughter. You can tell her all the advantages of keeping mobile and strong into middle age - and all the social benefits, as well. And we’ve trained traceurs much older than you.”

“Traceurs?”

“It’s a term we use for practitioners of parkour - it’s what the original Yamakasi guys called themselves when they started developing parkour in the _banlieus_ of Paris. We trace a route around obstacles, I suppose. And French being French, female practitioners are called _traceuses_.”

“Traceuse - hmm, I like it. Serena Campbell: _traceuse_ ,” she said, trying it on for size.

“Strength and conditioning can help make you a better traceuse: we’ll use a mixture of lifting and bodyweight exercises to build up some strength and resilience, and you should see some benefits pretty quickly.” Daisy propelled her onto the matting and started taking the weights off an Olympic bar, leaving it at its basic twenty kilogram weight. “Let’s see what you’re comfortable with at this stage, then I’ll draw you up a programme that builds on that and pushes you a little bit further. If you can get down here two or three times a week, you’ll notice a difference in no time.”

***

By the time the next session came around, Serena had managed another trip to the Hop Shed, and she was starting to feel very much at home. She gave a cheery wave to a young man as the group traipsed inside the gym, and Bernie nudged her.

“Friend of yours?” She asked.

Serena gave a little shrug. “Not exactly - that’s Daisy’s partner Dan. I’ve started coming down here between sessions to get my strength up a bit, and he gave me some pointers the other day.”

“Oh, good for you!” Bernie said. “I’m impressed. Funnily enough, I’ve been down here since last week as well - I managed to persuade my daughter to come along for one to one lessons with Daisy - well, one to two, I suppose.”

“It’s Charlotte, isn't it? Oh, I’m glad she’s giving it a go after all. Will you keep going along to her lessons as well, do you think? I hope you’re not planning to abandon us?” Serena’s tone of voice was light, but her consternation was genuine 

Bernie smiled. “I’m not dropping this class - I'm enjoying it too much for that! - but Charlotte asked me to keep going along to her sessions as well - says she likes doing things with just the two of us. She lives with her dad, and we hadn’t really been spending much time together. Doing the course was supposed to help her make friends outside the family, and I was going to pick her up and have Wednesday nights with her, but she gets so anxious about things that we decided the private lessons might work better for her.”

Serena gave her a slightly incredulous look. “She wants to spend time with you? You lucky thing. Mine wouldn’t be seen dead with me in public if she didn't need a lift from time to time. How old is Charlotte?”

“She’s seventeen - her brother’s twenty one. I know I'm lucky - I think I was away on tour for so much of her growing up that we’re making up for lost time. If I’m really lucky, she’ll go straight from clingy little girl to mature adult who enjoys her mother’s company,” Bernie said, her fingers crossed.

Serena raised her water bottle in a mock toast. “I’ll drink to that,” she said. “If you can avoid the sulky self-centred stage altogether, you’ll be a better mother than I am. Elinor’s _mortified_ that I’ve taken up parkour - says it’s a midlife crisis and a desperate attempt to look cool to impress younger men. She’s decided for reasons best known to herself that I’m setting myself up as a cougar.” Seeing Bernie’s look of confusion, she explained. “An older woman who lures young men in with their worldly experience. She couldn’t be more wrong on either count, as it happens.”

Just then, Daisy called them to order, and the little group followed her over to the scaffold rigging, but Bernie stood speechless for a second. Had Serena meant that her daughter was wrong about her wanting to lure anyone in, and that she wasn’t particularly experienced? Or that her target audience was neither young nor male? How very intriguing. She shook her head and joined the others.

***

“We’re going to work on a new skill this week,” said Daisy. “One of our key elements in parkour is balance, and it’s a skill that we had to practice as children, but take a bit for granted as adults. How do you feel about balancing? Confident?”

The women looked uncertainly at her, then at each other. Meena tutted, and gave her signature eye roll.

“Well, the beam is my favourite piece of equipment, so _I’m_ quite confident.”

“Get you, Nelli Kim,” muttered Serena under her breath, making Bernie snort.

Daisy ignored the interruption and smiled at the girl. “I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Meena. How about everyone else?”

“Alright as long as I’m not in high heels,” offered Morven, laughing.

“Or had a few too many cocktails,” Jasmine added with a rueful smile

Daisy laughed with them. “OK. So there are some things that affect your balance: what you wear on your feet, which can affect your centre of gravity; and alcohol, which affects your perception. Anything else that makes balancing more of a challenge?”

Serena piped up. “Ear nose and throat things - having a cold, or earache.”

“Migraines,” groaned Zosia.

“Did someone say centre of gravity?” Mo said, wincing and patting her tummy.

“OK, so different body shapes lend themselves to different skills and tasks, but the fun thing about parkour is that we can work around things like physical ability, environmental things like wet surfaces, or temporary things like illnesses. Everything we do is scalable - so we can do small movements when we need to, but we can be sure of doing them well, and doing them safely. And we can build up techniques that will let us rely on our senses more than we have done up until now. At the moment, you balance instinctively, but most of us don’t ask very much of our bodies other than being able to stay upright - most of the time.” She shot a wicked glance at Jasmine, who grinned and shrugged.

“But when we ask a bit more of our bodies, we want to know we can trust them, so we know that if we get distracted, or if something happens that’s outside of our control, our instincts will kick in to keep us safe, and its good technique and repetition that builds up those instincts. And that’s true of everything we do in parkour - technique is king - or queen, for us.”

She led them off in their usual warm up, which as well as the usual jogging, skipping and sidestepping, included lots of hoping on first one foot and then the other to start waking up their sense of proprioception - “knowing which bit of you is where in relation to the world around you,” she explained - and then she brought them back to the grass in front of the gym.

“I like to work out of doors whenever we can,” she said. “Mainly because I'm a fresh air junkie, but also because what we’re training ourselves to do is to interact with both the natural and built environments. So much of the fun we have with parkour, and the challenges we set ourselves, are about navigating obstacles in our day to day environment - walls, railings, benches - all sorts of things. And I think we might as well start as we mean to go on, by learning our skills out of doors. Right - ok, everyone find a space where you’re at least an arm’s length away from the next person. We’re going to start off with a really simple balance drill.”

And indeed it did start off simply. They stood on one leg as Daisy timed them for a minute, encouraging them throughout to think about what they were feeling, all the tiny adjustments their bodies were making to maintain balance: all the little twitches and contractions of the muscles of the leg; the almost involuntary movements of their arms and upper bodies as they provided a counterbalance when their standing leg wavered a bit too far.

“This is all stuff you do without thinking about it normally, isn’t it? You don’t need to consciously tell your arms to go out to balance you - it just happens instinctively. Let’s do the same thing on the other leg, now - and you might be surprised how different it feels!”

They swapped legs, and she set the timer running again. She had been right: almost without exception, everyone wobbled a bit more on their second leg, although Meena was perfectly composed.

“So without necessarily knowing you had a dominant leg, you all automatically chose the leg that you’re more confident on. Just as you have a dominant hand, most of us tend to be left or right footed, as well. That’s why, when you get little aches and niggles in your knee or leg, it will nearly always be in the same leg: you tend to take off from the same foot every time, land on the same foot, and so on. It’s one of the reasons we practice everything on both sides - we want to be practically ambidextrous. If you’re moving through an environment and you need to make a jump that will only work in the space you’ve got with your non-dominant foot… well, it makes sense to be equally confident on both feet.”

The timer went off again, and they relaxed, shaking out their surprisingly tired legs.

“So that was pretty easy, right?” Serena thought she could actually hear Meena’s eyes rolling, but everyone else murmured agreement. “Well, then it’s time to step things up a bit. Let’s try exactly the same exercise, but with your eyes closed - see what impact that has on your balance!”

There followed two minutes of utter hilarity, with flailing arms, exclamations and apologies as people grabbed onto the nearest person to stop themselves falling. A third repetition saw them keep their eyes open, but incorporate one deliberate movement, as they attempted to execute five perfect, slow and controlled single leg squats into the minute on each leg, which only Meena and Zosia achieved without having to put the other foot to the floor.

“Good work, everyone! I know that was easy for some of you, and challenging for others - that’s exactly what I’d expect, and wherever you are with it is completely fine. For people who found it hard, I’d suggest you run through that drill two or three times again before next week - you can do it while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, at the photocopier, while you’re brushing your teeth - the possibilities are endless! Now, come on over here and we’ll literally step it up again.”

They dutifully followed Daisy over to the low wall along the grass, and she hopped up on to it. “Another simple game - get yourself up on top of the wall however you like, then walk as far as my water bottle. Then jog as quickly as you feel comfortable doing to the end of the wall, and get yourself back down to the ground using the bench there - you can jump, step, vault or clamber, whatever feels good to you!”

She led off in a quick demonstration, walking steadily as far as the bottle she had placed at the side of the wall earlier, then jogging at a steady trot to the end, and without breaking stride, she jumped down to the seat of the bench, and vaulted neatly over the back.

“Off you go - let’s see what you make of it! And remember, we work at the pace of the slowest without judgement: we start together, we finish together!”

Mo, who seemed game to lead off any challenge, made ready to hoist herself up by sitting on the wall and swinging her legs up, but Meena vaulted up in front of her, saying, “I might as well get this out of the way first.” She ran lightly along the whole length of the wall, and jumped down to the bench, bouncing off the other end immediately and landing a prefect dismount, arms high and fingers splayed delicately. It did not win her the applause she might have been hoping for, and there was a collective tutting and shaking of heads.

“Very confidently done, Meena, but I want to stress again to all of you the importance of listening and understanding the task. For this first attempt, I want to see you all walking the first part, jogging the second, and dismounting however you like. And remember, ladies, it’s not a race - you won’t get on to the next part of the training until everyone has completed the part we’re working on. OK, Mo, let’s see you walking up there!” Daisy’s voice was as warm and friendly as ever, but there was a look in her eye that suggested she really wasn’t impressed with Meena.

Mo had got to her feet on top of the wall with a little help from Nicky, who had provided a steadying hand, and now she took a few tentative steps. 

“It's higher up here than it looked down there!” she laughed, hands held out either side to keep her balance. She looked a little wobbly, but she pushed on, muttering to herself, “It’s almost a foot wide, I wouldn’t fall off a foot wide path painted on the floor, would I?”

She looked relieved to get to the section where she could move a bit quicker, thought she slowed to a stop rather earlier than she needed to, and climbed carefully down to the bench by sitting back down on the wall first. At Meena’s poorly disguised stage whisper of “ _pathetic!_ ” Nicky stood very deliberately away from her, shaking her head and muttering darkly at her. She stepped up onto the wall herself, using a hand to steady her as she did so, and walked to the bottle, jogged to the end, and followed Mo’s example by sitting down before shuffling onto the bench, although she knew she could easily have stepped down instead. When she had finished, she went over to stand with Mo, her back turned against Meena.

The rest of them made it through without incident, and Serena was confident enough to jump, rather than step to the bench, though she stopped short of vaulting over the back the way Daisy had done. Bernie gave it a good go, although her landing wasn’t as neat, and poor Jasmine, who made up in enthusiasm what she lacked in co-ordination, almost came a cropper as she caught the toe of her shoe on the back of the bench trying the same move.

“You alright, Jas? Good! Take your time with all of these tasks - it’s much better to do them slowly but accurately, develop that muscle memory, then build up the speed later. Incidentally, next week we’re going to be looking at what we can do when it all goes a bit pear shaped - remind me to demo how to get out of that little trap you just set yourself! OK gang, let’s head indoors for the next bit.” 

As the group made their way back inside, Daisy discretely steered Meena to one side, letting the others go on ahead. By the time she and Meena came into the gym, Meena was wearing a mutinous expression, but she stalked up to Mo, and said through gritted teeth, “Sorry I went in front of you, I won’t do it again.”

Mo shrugged, and said, “Yeah, I bet you will, though,” and waited a beat before she gave her great generous laugh. “Don’t worry about it, kid, but you know what, you’re always going to be waiting for me, so you might as well get used to it.”

Katie took over the next section of the class, and had the group walking along first a square rail which was a couple of inches wide, and stood perhaps eight inches off the ground. She encouraged those who felt confident to have a go at the round scaffolding rail, demonstrating how much easier it was to manage with one foot on the rail than with two, however counterintuitive it felt.

“If you feel yourself falling and you’ve got both feet on the rail, all you can do is sort of lunge in the opposite direction,” she said, demonstrating how that almost inevitably led to a fall. “If you can counterbalance with _three_ limbs, though, you’ve got a much better chance of staying on the rail. _Wave your arms in the air like you just don’t care_ ,” she sang, doing just that, as well as letting her free leg go out for balance, and they saw how it helped her stay put, however odd it looked.

Off they went again along the rails, this time trying to mindfully keep only one foot on the rail, and using their other limbs to balance. It was certainly more fun than before, and helpful. Serena still found that she was much happier on the flat rail than the round one, and said as much to Bernie.

“Of course, you prefer an upright pole, eh?” Bernie teased, squawking in mock outrage as Serena pushed her off the rail.

The next stage was standing on a rail - square or round - for a sustained period of time, and they each took pride in their various achievements, whether it was staying on for over a minute, or just balancing for a whole second. 

“You might find it easier to stay on the rail in squat position,” Katie called out, demonstrating. “You have a lower centre of gravity that way.”

“Easier if you can get down there to start with,” Serena grumbled, falling off for the twentieth time.

When it came to moving up to the higher rails on the scaffolding rig, Bernie’s sense of humour deserted her a bit: her extra height made everything seem a little riskier, but part of the challenge for her in particular lay in accepting help from other people. Katie showed Serena how to hold up her hand in a fist for Bernie to lean on, rather than offering a traditional hand hold.

“If Bernie were to fall, she’d be ok - instincts kick in, she’d let go of your hand and grab the rail on the way down, or do her best to break the fall with her hands rather than her face. But if you’re holding hands like _this_ , fingers get tangled - and broken. Hold up a clenched fist, then she can cover it with her hand, lean on your braced arm, and if she needs to let go, you both get to keep all your fingers.” She aimed a sly wink at Serena that made her blush, and she refused to meet Bernie’s eye despite her snort of laughter.

Morven welcomed the advice about leaning on others for the high rail task. She was clearly terrified, but with much encouragement, she managed to give it a go with Jasmine on one side and Nicky on the other. She clung fiercely to each of their hands, but despite wobbling and freezing a couple of times, she managed to make it from one end of the rail to the other, and as Jasmine and Nicky helped her down, the rest of the group broke out into applause and a great cheer, so proud and excited for Morven as she overcame her fear with the help of her friends. 

“That’s great!” Daisy enthused as she re-joined the group. “A lot of you have faced your fears this week - remember, everyone has different demons to defeat, and I’ve seen some little devils running for their lives tonight! Let’s head over to the mats now for a cool down, but give yourselves a good round of applause first.”

***

After the class, Serena turned to Bernie. “When do you and Charlotte have your next session? I wondered if I might try and time a weights session around you, maybe meet up for coffee afterwards? If you think Charlotte would be OK with it, that is.”

Bernie smiled, her surprise as evident on her face as her pleasure. “Oh, that would be really nice! I’ll check with her, but I think she’d be alright with meeting just one person - It’s big groups that worry her, really. We’ll be here on Saturday morning, so maybe we could go for lunch? Nothing fancy - probably just a burger or something, but if it fits your schedule…”

Serena beamed. “That sounds perfect! I'm more than happy with a burger - I’ve found myself absolutely starving after the last few sessions - I can’t remember when I last worked as hard as Daisy works us!”

Bernie rolled her eyes in agreement. “Tell me about it! It's like being a new recruit all over again - though she’s much kinder and more encouraging than my Sergeant Major was! She’s great with Mo and Morven, isn't she? Bringing them on without making them feel bad, I mean?”

“She is. I think they’ve both got a lot to gain from this course, don’t you? Confidence, and so on. They both seem capable of the moves, it’s just believing they can do it. Same for me, actually. Who’d have thought this washed up, mid-life so and so could even _attempt_ parkour, let alone do some of the stuff we’re doing! I’m so glad Fleur signed me up for it now.”

Bernie grinned happily at her. “I’m glad she did, too. See you on Saturday, then? About half past twelve or so?”

Serena offered her hand for Bernie to high five, which she did with a laugh.

“It’s a date!”

***

“You must be Charlotte - hello, I’m Serena. It’s nice to meet you.” Serena smiled broadly at the young woman at Bernie’s side, and couldn’t help exclaiming, “Gosh, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? Don’t you look alike!”

Charlotte laughed shyly. “That’s what everyone says. I’d rather look like Mum than like Dad, anyway!”

“Hah!” Bernie laughed. “Good girl. They both take more after me than after their Dad, actually, but Charlotte’s got my colouring, which really exaggerates it. The Wolfe genes are pretty strong ones, it must be said.”

“My daughter’s the spitting image of me, as well, though I wouldn't dare tell her as much!”

“What? Why ever not?” Bernie said hotly. “She should be delighted to look like you!”

Serena shrugged. “She’s a Daddy’s girl, always has been. I think she’d rather believe she was adopted than look like me!”

“Well, she’s an idiot, then. No offence, but really - look at you! Who would complain about looking like you?”

Charlotte said nothing, but she looked sideways at Bernie, then her eyebrows went up and a little smile crossed her lips, as if something had just fallen into place for her.

Serena blushed. “Well, never mind all that - thank you, though! Let’s go and get something to eat, shall we?” Serena led the way from the front of the Hop Shed, and they set off on foot for the trendy burger bar that Serena and Bernie had agreed on after their last class. 

***

They bagged an upholstered booth and looked through the menu. 

Bernie looked at the little booklet with disbelief “This is all more complicated than it used to be, isn’t it? Do you remember when a burger was just a burger?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Serena replied. “I remember when burgers seemed to be made of shoe leather - I’m all in favour of this gourmet burger trend: proper meat in a bun that’s not made of polystyrene. What are we all having?”

Their orders placed, they settled back into the booth with their drinks.

“So, how are your classes going?” Serena asked. “I expect you’re overtaking us by now if you’re anything like your Mum.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’m really enjoying it,” Charlotte said. “Daisy’s really nice, isn’t she? And it’s so much fun! I really like watching the other people in the gym - you know, the really good ones? There’s a Ukrainian girl there - woman, I suppose - she’s amazing! Have you seen her?”

Serena’s face lit up. “Oh, you mean Frieda! Isn’t she something? Daisy tells me she’s been practising parkour for years now, and she’s training to be a coach. She ever so disciplined. I can’t imagine ever being able to do most of the stuff she does: she seems utterly fearless!”

“This is the woman Zosia’s been making eyes at, right?” Bernie asked.

“That’s the one. I can’t say I blame her. She’s certainly very striking, though rather a cool customer for my tastes - but I suppose you could say that of Zosia as well. I can see the attraction, anyway - though she terrifies me slightly.” 

Charlotte defended her new friend. “She’s been really helpful with us, though - she’s demonstrated a load of the things that we’ve been learning, so Daisy can talk us through them as she does them. She’s so cool!”

“She’s that, all right,” agreed her mother. “And very helpful, as Charlotte says. She’s actually pretty funny, too - as sharp as anything. I think Meena could do with a session with Frieda, she wouldn’t be nearly as diplomatic as Daisy is with her.”

Serena laughed at the thought of it. “I’d pay good money to see that, I think. Has your mum told you about our little princess, Charlotte?”

Charlotte giggled. “She has - she sounds a right pain. I’m surprised she keeps going - it doesn’t sound as if she’s getting much from it.”

“I suspect she’s enjoying being the best at everything,” Serena said. “I’d be the same if we were doing something more in my line of work - I’d want to be the best and make sure everyone knew it, but I know I’ll never be the best at this, so I don’t feel I need to compete. She’s a gymnast, though, and used to the attention and applause.”

Bernie rolled her eyes. “Isn’t she just. I can’t think it can be very satisfying to be the best out of us lot, though - Zosia’s the only one that’s taken to it with any real flair. I think the rest of us are just having fun. I am, anyway!”

As the food was delivered to their table, Bernie added, “What _is_ your line of work, by the way, Serena? I don’t think we’ve talked about real life much, have we?”

“Real life?” Serena laughed. “Who wants to talk about boring old real life when we’re training to be ninjas! I’m a doctor, as it happens. How about you?”

Bernie’s eyebrows had shot up to her hairline. “Huh - same here. I feel as though I should have recognised a fellow medic, somehow. I’m a trauma surgeon by training, but just doing locum shifts anywhere that can make use of me at the moment. I haven’t really settled to anything since I demobbed. What’s your specialism?”

Serena shook her head with mild astonishment at the coincidence. “Small world, hey? I’m at Holby City, clinical lead on AAU. We could really do with a radical overhaul of our trauma care - maybe I should see if we can get you in for a consultation!”

She had been joking, but as they chatted, the idea took hold, and they exchanged phone numbers with a view to arranging at least an informal visit. As they tucked into their burgers - Serena’s and Charlotte’s both piled high with lettuce, bacon, pickles and all sorts of extras, and Bernie’s plain old fashioned cheeseburger - the conversation turned to Charlotte’s college courses, Bernie’s boring new flat that Charlotte was dying to re-decorate, and Serena’s wayward daughter Elinor.

“Well, not really wayward, as such,” Serena demurred. “Just at that stage where she’s pushing her boundaries all the time, and horrified to think that her parents are actual people with lives of their own. Her father got remarried recently, to a _much_ younger model, and she quite likes the woman, but is thoroughly disgusted by the idea of their being intimate. I can only imagine what she’d make of if I turned up with a new partner one of these days. I think she imagines that life as a woman ends at forty.” She caught Charlotte’s embarrassed squirming from the corner of her eye. “It doesn’t, you know!” She teased, but Charlotte was game.

“I know - I’ve seen what Mum gets up to…” she hinted with a smirk.

Bernie held up her hands in defence. “Now just hang on a minute - I’ll have you know I haven’t been up to anything in a _long_ time,” she said ruefully, and Serena laughed.

“Our time will come again, Bernie, don’t you worry. A couple of awesome ninja surgeons like us? Irresistible!”

After the meal, Charlotte nipped to the loo while Bernie and Serena fought over the bill. Bernie won the tussle, and Serena gave way grudgingly, insisting that she would pick up the tab next time. Bernie smiled shyly at the idea of _next time_ , and Serena was stuck again by the similarities between mother and daughter.

“She’s a great kid, your Charlotte,” she said approvingly. “I thought she’d be a shy little mouse of a thing, but she holds her own, doesn’t she?”

“She does - she just gets a bit overwhelmed with lots of new people at once. Starting new schools was always hell for her. Marcus and the kids always used to come with me on postings, but it took its toll on Charlotte. Cameron never seemed to mind, but she got more and more withdrawn with each new school, so we decided it would be better for her to have the stability of a home here in the UK, and of course that meant that Marcus stayed put too, and then - we just drifted apart.”

“Do you know, it’s a silly thing to say, but after what you told me last week, it hadn’t occurred to me that you’d been married - to a man, I mean.”

“Not silly at all. But I suppose I was a bit of a late bloomer as far as all that goes - I was at least as surprised by it as Marcus was, poor chap.”

Serena looked as though she was about to say something, but just then Charlotte came back from the bathroom, and they gathered their belongings together and left the restaurant.

“Well, thank you for lunch - definitely my turn next time!” Serena said firmly. “It was great to meet you, Charlotte - see you soon, yes? Bernie, do give me a call about the trauma stuff - or even if you just fancy a coffee some time.”

Bernie nodded, smiling that same shy smile again, and Serena gave them a last little wave as she headed off to find her car.

Charlotte gave her mother a hip bump and a knowing glance.

“What?” Bernie asked, baffled. “What was that for?”

Charlotte just grinned at her. “Oh, nothing. Serena’s really nice - I like her. You should go for it.”

“What? No - Charlotte, look, she’s a friend, that's all.”

“Mm-hmm. And so was Alex. And now you look at Serena the same way. I really like her - I mean, not like you do, obviously, but she seems great. You’ve got my approval, if you wanted it.”

Bernie looked up ahead, checking that Serena was out of earshot.

“Charlotte. Come on, now, don’t. All right, yes - I like her a lot, but I don't know whether she’s even into women.”

“Well, whether she is or not, she’s definitely into you - big time! You should go for it, Mum.”

Bernie looked up the street after Serena, a thoughtful look on her face, then laughed shortly. “Come on - let’s get going. Race you to the shower!” And she sprinted off towards the flat, leaving her daughter laughing in her wake.


	4. Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jumping safely is one thing, but _falling_ safely is quite another, as the group discovers. Morven faces her fears; Meena discovers that pride goeth before a metaphor, and Serena is falling hard - but is she confident that she can land safely?

Bernie and Serena hadn’t been able to find a mutually convenient time for Bernie to come over to the hospital for an informal visit to AAU, but they had exchanged text messages several times, and managed a quick cup of coffee together after Serena’s session at the Hop Shed on the Monday.

“How are you getting on with the extra curricular stuff?” Bernie asked as she warmed her hands on her coffee mug. “I got the impression you hadn't done much gym work before now?”

Serena laughed. “None at all! I don’t think I’d been into a gym since I left school until our first session! And boy, have they changed since then! I know the Hop Shed’s not a typical gym - thank goodness - I’ve seen the brochures for the fancy places with all the Lycra and bondage gear - ugh, not for me, thank you!”

Bernie snorted, and her mouthful of coffee sprayed over the table. “Sorry - sorry!” She said, wiping it up with a napkin. “But - bondage gear? What?”

With a twinkle, Serena said, “oh, you know what I mean - all the machines and chains and straps and what not - all that gleaming chrome and leather and rubber - don’t tell me that’s not fetish gear for the kind of muscle bound narcissists that hang out at those places!”

Bernie laughed properly then, a great generous shout of a laugh, and Serena was utterly charmed by the ridiculous sound.

“Muscle Marys, they’re called, or so I’m reliably informed,” Bernie said. “I have to admit, that’s not really my sort of gym either. I like the Hop Shed - it’s got that sort of spit and sawdust feel, hasn’t it? I like that it mostly focuses on _doing_ things rather than lifting things - moving your body weight rather than dumb bells or kettle bells or whatever.”

“Oh, but Daisy has got me lifting weights the old fashioned way,” Serena cut in. “I’ve been doing squats and deadlifts with the long bar - the Olympic bar? Not with much weight yet, but I’m getting a bit stronger and a bit more confident with it. And lots of core work - planks and crunches and whatnot. I hardly recognise myself!” She laughed a little self-deprecatingly. “I think Elinor's right - it is a mid-life crisis of a sort, but at least it's a healthy one.”

Bernie gave a little frown. “It doesn’t sound like a mid-life crisis to me. More like a mid-life awakening, if anything!”

“Hah - you can say that again,” Serena mumbled, her hand going to her throat where a pendant usually hung. She had taken it off for her exercise session, and instead of fiddling with it as was her habit, she absently stroked the hollow between her collar bones with her fingertips.

Transfixed for a moment, Bernie cleared her throat and asked, “What, a mid-life awakening? Why, what else have you discovered?”

Serena had gone a peculiar shade of pink, and pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Goodness - is it hot in here or am I having a hot flush, do you think?” She reached for her water bottle and took a long swig, closing her eyes to cover her mortification, so did not see the way Bernie looked at her, mouth slightly agape, as she swallowed.

Bernie shook herself. “It is warm - I don’t think either of us is quite at the hot flushes stage yet, are we? Listen - I’d better go. Cameron’s coming round for tea this evening, wants to tell me about some girl he’s met at the shelter he volunteers at. I’ll see you on Wednesday - ok?”

Serena smiled brightly at her. “Of course! Have a nice evening with your son. See you on Wednesday!”

Her eyes followed as Bernie left the café, watching the slight sway of her hips, the long line of her back, the way her hair, hanging loose today, swung with each step. She smiled ruefully at herself.

“Mid-life awakening doesn't _begin_ to describe it,” she thought.

***

Wednesday’s warm up was a brisk game of tag, this time inside the spacious gym. Zosia started off as the chaser, and it wasn’t long before she tagged Jasmine. In and out of the scaffolding rig they darted, ducking under the bars, jumping over the lower railings, and constantly changing directions to avoid getting caught. The chaser changed more frequently than Serena could keep track of, and Bernie took advantage of her confusion, calling “Look out!” to her as a perfectly innocent Mo rounded the corner towards them. In trying to avoid Mo, Serena ran full tilt into Bernie, who steadied her with both hands on her shoulders, gave them a quick squeeze, and with a cheeky grin, said “Tag!” and sprinted off in the opposite direction.

“Oh! You little -” and Serena was off, on a one-woman revenge mission, ignoring opportunities to tag anyone else in her single minded pursuit of Bernie, who laughed as she ducked away from her again and again. Seeing what was going on, Daisy laughed too, and added a second chaser into the game to make sure everyone else was getting a good workout. By the time they finished, there were three chasers, and everyone had had a good run around, and even Meena seemed to be having fun.

Just as Serena felt she had a real chance of tagging her elusive prey, Daisy called time, and Bernie laughed again breathlessly and opened her arms wide as Serena caught up to her, giving her a crushing bear hug.

“You got me!” she cried.

“Oof! It feels very much as though you got me, but I’ll take it,” Serena wheezed.

Daisy gathered them around her and encouraged them to have a drink of water and get their breath back while she explained today’s session to them.

“Great warm up, ladies - good to see some of you so committed to the chase!” She winked at Serena, who blushed and shook her head as Bernie bumped her with her elbow. “Any tumbles to report? Any collisions? Good! Tag’s a great warm up, not just because it gets you moving, but when you’re playing somewhere like this, with lots of obstacles, you’ve got to be super alert to your environment, as well as to each other.”

She went over to the low railing they had started balancing on the previous week.

“We’ve done a bit of work now on jumping and landing. We looked at the precision jump in the first session - remember? We’re going to keep returning to that, and we’re going to level up this week, with some precision jumps to the rails rather than to the kerb - so you can see that we want to be really precise, You’re aiming to land with the balls of your feet just on the edge of the square rail, or just resting on the round one.”

She ran through a couple of examples, talking through the technique as she went.

“Your feet should land ahead of the rest of you, so as you take off, imagine you’re sitting in an armchair mid air, your knees raised in front of you so that your feet are ready to land in front of your body. And try to make sure you keep your chest up at all times, as if you’re sticking your chest out for someone to pin a medal on.”

“Easy for you to say,” Mo grumbled. “I’ve spent a lifetime trying to make my chest look smaller, not sticking it out!”

Smiling sympathetically, Daisy said, “You’re not the first woman to have said that here! If it helps, think about it as someone tugging a string attached to the centre point of your ribs, rather than sticking your boobs out. They’re tugging the string upwards and forwards, and you’re following it with the rest of your body.”

She held her arm out in front of her, holding the imaginary string and tugging it so that her rib cage rose, then she jumped to the rail, landing with her toes almost curling over the round rail like a monkey’s.

“Notice how I make sure to spot the jump first - that is, I keep the point where I want to land in sight before, during and for a heartbeat after the jump, so I know I can stick it. Right - pick a rail again, or you can use the concrete bench here if you’d rather practice it on something more stable first - but it’s a bit higher. Your choice!”

She set them off, and walked round among them offering hints and tips, lending a steadying hand where it was needed, and generally encouraging the women. When they had each managed to stick five jumps in a row, she stopped them again.

“Fab - well done! So you’re all getting to be pretty consistent with your landings, even on the rail. It feels very different, doesn’t it, when you’ve only go an inch or two leeway, rather then the whole pavement?”

There was general agreement, though Meena who was used to working on a beam, was less enthusiastic in her feedback.

“OK. We’re going to move on for now, from looking at landings to what happens when we don’t land a jump. Maybe you’ve misjudged the distance, or the angle, or the force required for a jump. Maybe you’ve been distracted mid-jump, or maybe you just lose your bottle and know you’re not quite going to make it. We’re going to look at how to land safely when it doesn’t quite go to plan. The first technique, and one of the most important moves in your box of tricks, is the bounce off.”

She repeated the first jump she had showed them, from the floor to the rail, but instead of landing on the balls of her feet, she let her feet land ever so slightly further back, so that only her toes made contact. Immediately, she dropped back to the floor with a little bounce from the rail, landing so that her forefoot took the force.

“So we’re still executing a good landing - just not where we’d initially planned for it to be!” she said. “Watch again.”

She demonstrated a few more times, explaining that failing a jump could happen by undershooting, as she was doing here, or overshooting, which they would tackle after bounce offs.

“Let’s see you practicing bounce offs now: try the same jump you’ve just perfected, but use a little less power, or start from further back, so that you _nearly_ make it. You still want to reach the edge with your toes, but just to the point where you can’t confidently stick the jump.”

Failing a jump deliberately was harder than it looked, and they found that their instincts made them want to overshoot if anything, but one by one they got the hang of it, and within ten minutes or so they were happily bouncing back to the floor with more or less good technique.

“Be careful to land on your toes or the ball of your feet, not your heels,” Daisy warned them. “That way you get good shock absorption, but if you land on your heels, your Achilles' tendon hasn't got anywhere to go, and you take the shock right up your leg. Meena, let’s see a couple of bounce offs from you, please?”

But for once, Meena was not finding things easy, and she could not get the hang of landing the jump short.

“It’s no good,” she said, “I just can’t do it wrong. It seems really stupid trying to get it wrong on purpose, anyway.”

Daisy tilted her head to one side. “It does, I know, but it’s another technique to practice to keep you safe when it goes wrong. You practice it over and over so that when it goes wrong for real, your instincts know how to handle it. Try again!” And she smiled encouragingly.

But Meena was not happy. “But I don’t make mistakes - it’s not _going_ to go wrong.” And she landed her jump perfectly on the round rail as if to prove her point.

“We all think that, but sooner or later gravity gets us all! Really work on it: imagine a spot one inch before the edge, and aim for that - then you’ll _have_ to bounce off.”

She moved on to help Morven, making sure that Meena was making an effort, but as soon as her back was turned, Meena resumed her perfectly landed jumps.

A few minutes later, she called them to order again, ready for the next progression.

“OK. You’ve missed the jump, and for whatever reason, the bounce off isn’t quite enough to absorb the landing. Perhaps you haven’t quite got time to get your feet back under you, and your centre of gravity is too far back. Or you’re coming down from a height that needs something more robust to absorb the force. Here’s what we do when that happens.”

She went back to the rail and made her jump from a little farther back still, her toes barely making purchase on the metal. This time, rather than dropping her feet to the ground, she let herself fall back, bending her knees to bring her body closer to the floor so that the fall had less impact. Her hands hit the ground first, followed closely by her bottom, and she rolled backwards so the force was dissipated. She bounced up to her feet, and talked through the move again until everyone understood the various parts of it.

When it came to trying it out, only Zosia and Jasmine really took to it - and it had to be said that Jasmine seemed happy to throw herself into everything, whether she had the technique or not. Bernie begged off, explaining that she had some ongoing issues with her back that made this an unwise exercise for her, and she helped Serena through the move, providing a reassuring presence at her back, reaching out a hand when she needed it.

“Good work, people! Let’s take this outside now - we’ve got some nice little jumps to practice out there, and its good to work with different textures as well. The little bollards in the car park are a nice height to start building up your confidence - let’s go!”

“You’re joking,” said Meena, and the group paused on their way outside, turning to see the girl standing on her own next to the scaffolding. “We’re not really going out there, are we? It’s raining!”

“Here we go,” Mo muttered, then louder, said “It’s only water. What’s the worst that’s going to happen? And it’s only a shower, anyway. Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?”

“It's ridiculous! What’s the point going out in the rain when we’ve got the gym to use?”

The ever patient Daisy explained that parkour was an all-weather activity, and that being able to respond to surfaces in different conditions was all part of the challenge.

“But if you don’t feel able to do it, that’s fine - like I said last week, different people are scared of different things. My pet hate is heights - if yours is rain, that’s completely valid, and you shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.”

Meena took the bait. “Scared? Of rain? Oh my god. Who’s scared of rain? I’m not scared of it, I just don’t want to get wet - it’s going to ruin my make-up!”

Even the sweet natured Morven couldn’t stop herself laughing, and Meena capitulated with very bad grace.

“Fine! Let’s get it over with, then.” And she marched out of the door, her nose in the air.

The rain was not all that heavy, and the only thing the traceuses had to be careful of was that the surfaces had slightly less grip than when they were dry.

“That’s why you always aim to land on the edge,” Daisy explained. “If you land with your foot flat on top of the wall or whatever you’re landing on, your foot can easily slide away in front of you - so you risk coming down on your bum. But if you land with the ball of your foot on the edge, at an angle like this, you get a good bite, and your shoe and the edge grip each other. Before we hit the bollards, I’d like to see you nail five precisions to the kerb, and five bounce offs. Off you go!”

They rattled through the jumps and bounce offs, with one predictable exception. “Don't forget you’re supposed to muck some of them up,” Nicky said to Meena, who was patently bored of jumping to the pavement. “Start from further back so it’s harder, maybe?”

“As if there could ever be anything hard about jumping onto a kerb. When are we going to get on to the fun stuff? I want to do wall runs and front flips and things, not this rubbish.”

Nicky rolled her eyes and returned to carefully practising her bounce offs, throwing in a roll to the floor for good measure, ignoring the rainwater that soaked through her top.

Moving up to jumping on the bollards brought a level of progression that most people met without too much difficulty, but poor Morven found that she just couldn’t persuade herself to even attempt the jump. She stood in the takeoff position, knees slightly bent, heels off the floor and arms ready to swing to give momentum, but as she said to Daisy, it felt as though her feet were stuck to the floor when she tried to make herself jump.

“Don’t worry - it takes lots of people this way - I get the same when I’m trying to jump at height. Try this: don’t worry about the bollard for now - just jump on the spot as high as you can. Bring your knees up. That’s it! Again?”

Morven was amazed to find that she was jumping to a height easily in excess of the height of the bollards, and she skipped back to the little obstacle, ready to take it on, but to her dismay, she found she still struggled to commit to the jump.

“I keep thinking, if I miss it, I’m going to break my toes, or whack my shins,” she said, shaking her head in frustration. It was frustrating to watch, too, as everyone wanted her to succeed, knowing she could make the jump if she could just bring herself to commit to it. Amidst all the encouragement of her peers, Meena finally lost patience.

“Ugh. Why do you even keep coming to this - you’re scared of _everything!_ ”

There was a gasp of disbelief as the group fell silent, and Serena was about to wade in, but Bernie laid a calming hand on her arm and nodded at Morven. The young woman’s eyes were wide as saucers in shock at the attack, but despite a slight quiver of her lower lip, she rallied and answered with dignity.

“I keep coming _because_ I’m scared of everything. It’s no challenge just to do things you’re already good at - and to sneer at people who aren’t good at them. You should try it - do something that’s outside your comfort zone. It’s the only way we grow as people.”

She shrugged and gave Meena a little smile, and turned back to her task. It took her a few more goes, but she eventually nailed it, and the group cheered her as if she had just jumped from one skyscraper to another. She beamed happily.

“I did it!” She cried. “I can’t believe I actually did it!”

“You did - really well done! You’re right, Morven, you get so much more from challenging your fear and facing it down, or working with and around it, than you do from something you’re already comfortable with - I still get that exact same feeling when I break a new jump!” Daisy gave Morven a heartfelt high five, then said “Now, do it again, straight away while you’re still confident - that’s it - brilliant!”

Nicky, meanwhile, was considerably less encouraging to her friend.

“God, Meena, what’s your problem? We’re not all gymnasts, you know, and Morven was really scared of that jump. You’re such an arse sometimes,” and she walked off in a huff.

“That’s ridiculous - who’s scared of jumping thirty centimetres?” Meena scoffed. That’s nothing - look, it’s _so_ easy!”

She jumped up to the nearest bollard with ease, and starting jumping from one to the next, to the next. When she reached the end, she jumped up to the wall, and hopped off with her trademark dismount, but no-one was impressed.

“You might want to rein it in a bit, kid,” Bernie warned her, not unkindly. “You just jumped right in front of Jasmine - she was ready to go and she only just caught herself. Just - keep it safe, hey?”

“Pfft. As if there’s _any_ risk in any of this - it’s pathetic!” Meena scowled, and Bernie shrugged.

“Your funeral - but don’t put other people at risk, that’s all I’m asking.”

Furious, Meena stalked off, and Serena rolled her eyes at Bernie. “You’ve got more patience than I have. Let me at her next time, will you? If she’s spoiling for a fight, she can try taking me on!”

Nicky butted in. “Oh, just ignore her. She’s just after attention - it’s better not to give it to her. She’ll get over it.”

Mo slung an arm round the young woman’s shoulders. “You’re a good friend to her, Nicky - she doesn’t deserve you. I don’t know how you put up with her. Actually, I don’t know _why_ you put up with her!”

Nicky glanced over to the gym as Meena flounced back inside, presumably to get her things.

“Nor do I, these days,” she sighed.

Knowing that Katie and Frieda were both in the gym, Daisy decided to leave Meena to them, and rallied the group round the bench that Jasmine had tripped over the previous week. She was just starting to show them how to save themselves from the kind of fall that Jasmine had somehow avoided more by luck than by technique, when a cry came from the gym, and Katie darted out, making eye contact with Daisy.

“We’ve had a bit of an incident - that stroppy kid’s just taken a nasty fall,” she said, and Daisy sprinted back to the Hop Shed, Bernie closely on her heels with the rest of the group following after.

Meena lay on the floor of the gym beneath the scaffolding rig. Bernie could see at a glance that her shoulder was dislocated, but wanted to check her over for other injuries before she reduced it.

“Did you hit your head at all, Meena? I can see you’ve dislocated your shoulder - there’s a chance you might have a fractured clavicle as well, I’m afraid. Where else does it hurt?”

Meena looked round wildly, her face pale beneath the make up, now rather less immaculate than it had been an hour earlier.

“Leave me alone! I need a first aider, not some stupid old woman who thinks she’s something just because she can do a pull up. I need an ambulance! Why isn’t anyone calling an ambulance for me?”

Serena spoke sternly. “You stay still, young lady. An ambulance is on its way, but in the meantime you’re being assessed by a trauma surgeon with twenty odd years of experience, so I’d pipe down if I were you. What happened?” She said, turning to Katie.

“She came in muttering about _lame little jumps_ , said she could do them with her eyes closed. She was just practising rail jumps,” she said, touching the rails at waist height. “She seemed to know what she was doing, so I just told her to stick to the lower rails and to call me if she needed any help or advice, but she said - well, never mind. Anyway, I left her to it - next thing I knew, she sort of shrieked, and I was just in time to see her fall from the top rail up there. She tried to catch it as she went down, that’s how she put her shoulder out. I don’t think she hit her head - catching at the rail broke her fall a bit.”

Bernie had been assessing Meena’s injuries, and Serena watched on with approval at her efficient manner, those slender fingers feeling firmly but gently for injuries, and Bernie all the while talking quietly through what she was doing to keep Meena as calm as possible. It was quite something to behold. Serena knew that her own manner would have been far less sympathetic in this instance, and she was glad that Bernie had taken control of the situation.

Katie was giving herself a hard time, and she dragged a hand through her hair as she told Daisy, “It’s my fault - I should have stayed supervising her. I’d never have let her go up there - she said she was going to practise the lower jumps until you came back in.”

“It wouldn't have made any difference,” came a heavily accented voice, and Bernie looked over her shoulder to see Frieda leaning against the rail. “I told her to get down from the top section and she told me to fuck off. I wouldn’t say she deserved to fall, but don’t feel sorry for her - she was told to keep off the top and she went up there anyway. And she hasn’t bothered learning any recovery techniques - you know she wouldn’t take bounce offs seriously, she doesn’t have any respect for risk - or for other practitioners, either.”

Meena groaned. “How would you know? You’re not even in our group.” She gasped as Bernie finished her assessment of her shoulder.

Frieda looked at her coolly. “I’ve been keeping an eye on your group,” her eyes flickered up to meet Zosia’s briefly, and a smile tugged at her lips before she resumed her usual impassive mask. “And I haven’t been impressed with you. Oh, you move well, and your technique isn’t bad, though it’s kind of prissy - but your attitude sucks,” she said plainly. “Parkour is a community. There’s no competition, not against other people. We support each other, help each other to overcome our fears and meet our own challenges, but all you’ve done is show off, and laugh at other people’s fears. You could learn something from today - but I doubt you will.”

Daisy stepped in. “Frieda, come on. Don’t kick the girl while she’s down.”

Frieda shrugged. “It’s the truth. The truth shouldn’t hurt - not if you’re a decent person.” She cocked her head to one side. “That's the ambulance. I’ll show them where we are.”

The paramedics were in agreement with Bernie that although her shoulder was clearly dislocated, the clavicle was in tact, but they struggled to relocate her shoulder.

“It’s always harder when someone’s in good shape like this lass,” the lead paramedic said. “The better the muscle tone, the more resistant it is to relocation. We’ll have to get her back to A&E for a bit of knockout gas, I’m afraid. The journey’s not going to be much fun for you, love - sorry about that.”

Meena sobbed from the pain and the dreadful anticipation of what movement would do to her shoulder, but Bernie raised a hand. “Let me have a go. I’m ex RAMC - I’ve done any number of these in the field on squaddies with far more muscle mass.”

Serena backed her up. “It's Barry, isn’t it? Serena Campbell, AAU. If we can reduce it here, it will be much less stressful for her. Do you want a hand, Bernie?” She supported Meena as Bernie gently manipulated the joint, then with a single firm movement, she pulled the arm across until she felt the joint pop back into place. Meena screamed and went very pale indeed, but a moment later she was panting in relief.

“Better? Good. It’s going to be sore as anything for a while, and they’ll give you something for the pain, but beyond that it’s going to be a case of stabilising it and not putting any strain on it for a few weeks.” Bernie looked up at Barry and nodded. “All yours.”

As Barry and his mate loaded Meena up onto a gurney, Nicky offered to come with her to the hospital, but Meena turned her head and spat, “What for? What use would you be? Just call my Dad and he’ll meet me there. And then he’ll be in touch with you,” she said to Daisy and Katie, “about suing this stupid place for neglect. It’s a miracle no-one’s died here.”

Serena was done.

“Right, you, Beth Tweddle. I’m sorry you’ve hurt yourself, we all are. But that’s enough. You’ve refused tuition, you’ve ignored instructions. You’ve insulted pretty much everyone in this group, and you’ve set yourself up as some sort of unsolicited womansplainer since the very first week. Threatening people with law suits when any one of us would testify to your resistance to practising the basics is pretty - well, dumb.” 

She paused for breath and Meena opened her mouth to argue, but Serena hadn’t finished.

“You’ve blamed other people for your own silly mistake, you’ve constantly taken Nicky’s friendship for granted, and you haven’t even thanked Bernie for sorting you out. Have a word with yourself, Meena, honestly. You’re going to have to have some time off doing the things you enjoy now - use it to meditate on the sort of person you want to be, hmm?”

She caught Barry’s eye and nodded at him. “Go on, get her to A&E. St James is nearest, I’d say, wouldn't you?”

Suppressing a smile, Barry got Meena loaded onto the ambulance, and as it pulled away, Nicky spoke up again, shaking her head.

“She was right about that make-up in the rain.”

***

Leaving Daisy to fill in the necessary paperwork, Katie finished off the session with them, just taking through a brief strength and conditioning set of squats and lunges, and then a cool down. Frieda lurked against the wall, not even pretending not to be looking at Zosia as she stretched.

“That was quite a fearsome display you put up there,” Bernie said to Serena in the car park afterwards. “Feel better for getting all that off your chest?”

Serena blushed, aware that she had rather let her passions rule her head, but she laughed nonetheless. “I do, actually. It’s everything I’d been wanting to say to her since the first week - insufferable little madam. I suppose she reminded me of the popular girls at school - you know, the really sporty ones.” She caught Bernie’s eye and laughed again. “Oh, I bet that was you, wasn’t it? Not like Meena, I mean - but a fiver says you were captain of hockey or something?”

It was Bernie’s turn to laugh. “Guilty as charged. Will you take your fiver in cash or in a glass?”

Serena looked at her in mild confusion, and she reframed her question, looking a little shyly at her friend.

“I mean, do you fancy a drink? With me?”

The atmosphere was suddenly thick and charged, somehow, and Serena’s breath hitched. Her hand went to the zip of her hoodie, and she fiddled with the tag. God, did she want a drink with this woman, and everything that might follow on from it. As she tried to find a way of saying so without sounding desperate, her glance fell upon two figures at the side of the gym. It took her a second to realise that it was Zosia and Frieda, clinched in a very passionate embrace, and she flushed dark as she saw Frieda’s hand cupping Zosia’s backside; Zosia grasping one of Frieda’s long plaits and tugging fiercely. All of a sudden the reality of what was happening crashed upon her and she faltered.

Was she really ready for that level of intensity with Bernie? With a woman?For all that she had told Fleur how confident she was of her own new desires, she felt suddenly adrift.

“I - that would be - oh! Sorry, I have to get home - I’ll see you next week,” she blustered, and strode to her car and pulled out of the car park, her cheeks still aflame. Bernie watched the tail lights disappear with dismay, berating herself for her clumsy, and evidently unwelcome, move.

“Stupid, stupid idiot!” she muttered.

***

Just round the corner at the traffic lights, Serena waited for the sequence to change to green, and let her head thud gently on the steering wheel.

“You stupid, stupid coward.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morven is me: scared of everything, but damned if she’s going to let that stop her. I’ve just about progressed to Mo by now - I’ll give it a go, but you’ll probably have to wait for me to finish - and I’m okay with that. I’m delighted to say that I haven’t met anyone like Meena in three years of parkour, but I’ve met lots of Daisys, Katies and Friedas. :-)


	5. Overcoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serena asks advice from Fleur on how to overcome her embarrassment at bolting from Bernie; Charlotte overcomes her anxiety and makes some new friends, and as the group learns how to overcome physical obstacles, there is still one hurdle for Serena and Bernie to negotiate. Will either of them be brave enough to try?

“Oh, Serena, tell me you didn’t!”

Fleur’s voice was full of disappointment, disapproval and disbelief. Serena sighed.

“I very much did, I'm afraid. I just panicked! I don’t know, there was something about seeing those two fit young things snogging like teenagers… it suddenly made me think how middle aged and fat and frumpy I am these days, and Bernie’s - I don’t know, so slim and fit and lovely… it just put the frighteners on me, rather.”

Fleur huffed. “Well, I'm not going to argue about middle aged - though I could do, mind - but _frumpy?_ Really? Come off it Serena, you’re as stylish a minx now as you ever were. And if by fat you mean curvaceous, well, yes - I’d say that was one of your selling points, actually.”

Serena squirmed as Fleur looked her up and down with a lascivious look in her eye, and she covered her embarrassment by pouring yet another glass of shiraz. 

“Oh, stop it,” she said. “Alright, frumpy might not be the right word, but - I don’t know, out of practice? Inexperienced? Don’t laugh - I _am_ inexperienced when it comes to women. Oh, I wish I hadn’t seen them just then - it really wrong-footed me.”

Fleur took a sip of her cocktail and rolled it luxuriously round her mouth before she swallowed it. “Mmm. Why was that, do you suppose? You’ve seen people kissing before - you know how it works! And surely you’ve seen two women kiss before now? Didn’t you say you’d been doing some - what was it you called it - independent research?”

Serena covered her face with both hands. “Oh, don’t remind me! And for God’s sake, if I ever get run over by the proverbial bus, delete my browser history before Elinor gets hold of it!”

Laughing not unkindly at her friend, Fleur patted her hand. “There, there, don’t give it a second thought. In the event of your untimely demise I’ll confiscate your laptop and console myself by watching it all myself. So what’s the plan now? How are you going to rescue what was sounding like a very promising situation?”

Shaking her head, Serena threw her hands up in a little gesture of defeat. “Do? I’m not going to do anything. I’ve blown it, haven’t I? Bernie stuck her neck out, and I practically recoiled in horror. I think the only thing to do is retire gracefully from my parkour career and go back to being a washed up, midlife lesbian wannabe.”

“Serena Campbell, you will do no such thing! You've met a like-minded woman of a similar age, who from your description is as hot as Madras in mid-summer; who is your equal intellectually and technically, and who, by the sound of things, is very much open to the idea of exploring things a bit further with you. If you dare give up, I’ll wade in and snap her up for myself!” She softened. “Look, you’re embarrassed about how you reacted, that’s all. Hasn’t that ever happened before when you’ve met a man?”

With a humourless laugh, Serena replied, “Not to me - it’s usually the bloke that makes a prat of himself. It’s quite the novel experience having the shoe on the other foot. What would you do, if you were me?”

“Me? Well, I wouldn’t have panicked, for a start - I’d have shown those two young lovers a trick or two! But seriously - just text her. Say you’re sorry you had to rush off, and can you meet up sometime before your next class? I know you like to be in control - mmph, lucky Bernie! - so put yourself in control of this whole thing. Suggest going somewhere that makes you feel confident, dress to the nines and buy the first bottle. Simple as that.”

Sounding doubtful but hopeful, Serena said, “You do make it sound simple. What if she says no? What if I’ve just made it too weird?”

“Oh, just look at yourself - she’s not going to say no! Here - give me your phone - I’ll do it if you like.”

“You will not! I’ll think about it, text her when I’m sober. Right now, though - you can pour me another.”

***

“Serena - there you are! Oh, wow, you look - oh, I should have dressed up a bit more. You look lovely.”

Bernie came into the bar in a whirl of golden hair and shopping bags. “Sorry, I had to pick up a few things on the way, got caught in the slowest queue, you know how it is. Oh, isn’t it nice in here? I wish I’d realised how swish it was - I’d have made more of an effort.”

Serena laughed. “Bernie, you look fine. You look more than fine, you look - you look amazing, actually. Put your bags down and get comfortable - red alright?” She held a bottle of shiraz aloft for Bernie’s inspection.

“Suits me - I’m not fussy. Thanks.” They clinked glasses with a simple cheers, and Bernie started to relax a little.

“Mm, that’s nice. Phew! I thought I was going to be late, so I pegged it up here - must have looked like a mad old bag lady with this lot!”

Serena scoffed. “Hardly! You look great - have I said that already? That’s coat’s gorgeous,” she said, not able to refrain from reaching our and stroking the soft grey wool.

“I treated myself when I came home - all those years of uniform meant that I didn’t have much of a wardrobe, and I’ve been on a bit of a shopping spree again today,” she said, gesturing at the bags.

A realisation hit Serena, and she said, “Do you know, I’ve only just put two and two together. How stupid of me! As soon as you told me you were a trauma surgeon, the whole army thing flew out of my head - you must have been in the RAMC, right?”

Bernie nodded. “That’s right. Twenty years - a bit longer, actually. It’s been quite an adjustment getting used to civvy street again.”

The cogs were still turning in Serena’s head. “ _Oh!_ … you’re - are you Berenice _Wolfe?_ ” She knew it was true even as she said it. “Bernie, why didn’t you tell me? And there I was trying to poach you to advise on our trauma cover! Well, I couldn’t very well have picked anyone more suited to it, could I? I’m really sorry - it just didn’t occur to me that it might be you!”

Bernie pushed her fringe out of her face in a well practiced move. “You’ve heard of me?”

“Well - yes, of course! I make my whole team read every article you publish - I’ve always really admired your clarity and good sense. You haven’t published so much lately, though, have you?”

 _Here it comes_ , thought Bernie, _the ghoulish fascination, the pity_. She knew how this bit went: she’d told this little story enough times since she was invalided out, every time she started a new locum role: and every time it garnered the same reaction.

“No. Bit of a dry spell, actually. I was injured while I was out in Afghanistan last year, and I spent a while in rehab - quite a long time, actually. I had the choice of keeping my commission but not being permitted to go on tour again, or leaving altogether. I came home to try and save my marriage, but really, it was over long before I got injured.”

Serena’s eyebrows had shot up, but she caught the mater of fact tone of Bernie’s tale and responded accordingly.

“Well, that does explain the publishing hiatus. And it explains how careful you’ve been about your back as well - you still have some trouble with it?”

“A little. Not too bad considering how badly knocked about I was - I caught an IED, though it could have been much worse.”

“Indeed it could,” Serena agreed with a little shudder. “So you took up parkour to get back in shape? Oh - no, of course, you booked it for Charlotte initially, didn’t you. Still, it must be satisfying to find how fit and strong you are still?”

“I can’t deny it!” Bernie laughed. “And it’s fun, too, isn’t it? I like that we’re a fairly mixed group, too - that element of support and encouragement. I like the whole philosophy of it.”

“Mm. Listen, Bernie, I was thinking about that. The support thing, I mean. I was wondering - well, there’s a spare place now that Meena’s gone - do you think Charlotte might think about joining us for the last couple of weeks now that she’s done a bit with you? I mean, she knows Daisy and Katie, and she’s met me - maybe it wouldn’t seem quite so scary for her now?”

Bernie looked at her for a long moment without speaking and her eyes were soft in the muted light of the bar. How sensitive Serena was: to allow her to brush over the whole IED thing, and now to think of Charlotte like this.

“That’s a really lovely thing to suggest, Serena - thank you. I’ll suggest it to her, see what she thinks. It wold be great if she could - I think she’d get on well with Nicky.”

“Yes, she seems like a good steady kid, doesn't she? Well, ask Charlotte if she fancies it - I’m sure Daisy would be ok with her joining us.”

They chatted contentedly as the bottle gradually emptied, but when Serena suggested they order another, Bernie regretfully declined.

“It’s very tempting, but I promised Cameron I’d meet him for dinner this evening - I’m hoping I’m going to meet his mystery woman.”

“Oh yes, I forgot about that - did he tell you much about her when he came over last week?”

Bernie rolled her eyes. “He cancelled on me, little beast, so I’m none the wiser. If he bails on me again I’ll march down to the shelter myself and insist on an introduction, I think!”

“I like your thinking - hell hath no embarrassment like an unexpected maternal visit, hey? Well, here’s hoping he has the sense to show up tonight. Will I see you before Wednesday, do you think?” She tried to sound casual, but wasn’t sure she’d quite nailed it, but Bernie took the question at face value.

“I hope so. Would you like to go for lunch again on Saturday? That burger place? Or somewhere different, I don’t think Charlotte’s too fussy about where we go.”

“That would be really nice - thank you. I’ll see you at the Hop Shed, then, and we can decide where we go from there. Goodnight, Bernie. I’ve really enjoyed this evening.”

Bernie was ready to leave now, her elegant coat emphasising her lovely figure, her shopping bags looped over her arm. She looked back at Serena, a little smile on her face. 

“Me too. Goodnight - I’ll see you on Saturday.”

***

Serena’s phone pinged to announce an incoming text message, and she picked it up expecting a thinly veiled request for money from Elinor, but it was Bernie’s name that came up on the screen.

 _Can you believe it? Cameron has cancelled again! We could have had that second bottle after all_.

It was followed by a little string of emojis, and Serena had to squint to see what they were: a little face rolling its eyes followed by a sad face, one tear falling, and a glass of red wine. She swiped her phone open to reply.

_Oh, what a shame! Is he OK?_

_Yes - said he had to work an extra shift to cover for illness. I *think* he’s telling the truth!_

Serena paused for a moment, unsure of how to keep the conversation going without seeming too desperate. 

_I suppose it’s too late to go back for the other bottle?!_

She added a winking face so she could pretend it was a joke in case it seemed too much, but Bernie replied straight away.

_I’d love to, but have already got my pyjamas on! We should definitely do it again some time soon, though!_

A happy smiling emoji this time, Serena noted, her own smile reflecting it.

_Definitely!_

***

When Serena turned up at the Hop Shed, it was to the sight of Bernie, Charlotte and Daisy revisiting the pull up challenge that had seen Bernie win the day a few weeks earlier. Daisy spotted her and waved at her.

“Serena! Want to come and join in?”

She laughed. “I can’t manage one pull up, let alone however many you action women are doing! I’ll just watch and learn, thanks!”

But Daisy dropped from the bar and trotted over.

“So we’ll work on that, shall we? Charlotte, Bernie, do you mind if I just spend five minutes getting Serena started off? Thanks!”

Serena followed Daisy over to the lower section of the scaffolding rig, and Daisy showed her a couple of exercises that would help her with developing towards being able to do pull ups.

“Once you’ve had a proper warm up, try five sets of five underbar rows, like this.” She sat on the floor beneath a waist height bar, grasped it with both hands at shoulder width apart, then, straightening her legs, she pulled herself up so that her chest met the bar at the top of her movement, then let herself down again in a smooth, controlled movement.

“You might find it a bit of a challenge to start off with straight legs, so if you need to, you can start by bending your knees to raise your hips and then complete the move from there.” She demonstrated this adaptation and Serena nodded to show that she understood.

“The other thing that will help is assisted pull-ups. You can use these bands to carry some of your weight, look - start with the green one, and over the next few weeks you might find you can progress to the next one down - the purple - they’re graded to support less of your weight as you’re able to take more of it yourself. You lob it over the bar like this - there - and feed it through so it’s secure. Then put your foot in the bottom loop and grab the bar like you normally would - that’s it - and now pull up? Excellent! Hook the other foot behind the one in the loop, that will keep you stable.”

Serena was amazed at the difference the thick rubber band made, and she felt herself almost spring up as it contracted.

“Wow! That does the job, doesn’t it?”

Daisy smiled up at her. “It really does! Aim for five sets of five of those as well - you might find that you can’t manage five by five on either exercise just yet, so do what you can manage consistently, whether that’s five sets of three, or two sets of five - just try and pace it so that you’re not _quite_ failing.”

“Not quite failing. Hah! I think I should have that printed on a t-shirt and wear it to class on Wednesday!”

“I like it! But failure can be a good thing in strength training, you know - you’ll quite often want to repeat an exercise to failure - you keep doing your push ups or crunches or whatever it is until you can’t physically do any more - or increase the weight you’re lifting until you can’t lift it. It can be a great way to measure progress as long as you don’t do it too often - you need to let yourself recover properly from that sort of effort.”

Daisy glanced over her shoulder to check on Charlotte and Bernie, and said, “I’d better get back to these guys - don't forget, a good warm up: a few minutes jogging, and plenty of arm swings and circles before you start. I’d suggest starting with the underbar rows, then squats with the bar, and finish off with the assisted pull ups. I’ll check in with you from time to time - OK?”

Serena got stuck into her session and tried to ignore Bernie and Charlotte on the other side of the room, but it was difficult with Bernie in those leggings, her hair pulled back into a stubby little pony tail exposing her long, elegant neck. Once she got going with the exercises, though, she found herself having to concentrate harder and harder on them, as fatigue set in surprisingly quickly with the repeated moves. She was determined to complete the prescribed five sets of five, but Daisy, seeing her struggling, admonished her.

“Quality over quantity, Serena! It’s better to do three reps with good form that to do five scrappy ones. Focus on keeping your movements slow, smooth and controlled rather than trying to do more of them.”

By the time they had finished their respective sessions, Serena was more than ready to stop, and she nipped into the toilets for a quick wash and brush up, changing her sweaty top for a clean one. When she came back out, Bernie and Charlotte were clowning around with the punch bag, playing at trying to get each other from either side of it, and she smiled to see Bernie so unguarded and happy with her daughter. Bernie had told her how difficult things had been between them when she first left Charlotte’s dad, but it was clear that they were close now. Serena felt a little pang of envy: she couldn’t imagine spending time like this with Elinor, though it often felt as though a punch bag might be just the thing for managing her frustration with her.

She pushed away the somewhat disloyal thought, and waved at Bernie. 

“Ready for lunch?” she called, and had to laugh as mother and daughter immediately forgot their game and raced over like hungry puppies.

They ended up in a pizza place that Charlotte had been to before. Serena was startled when the food arrived.

“Taking some home for later, are you?” She asked, eyeing the extra large pizzas in disbelief, but Bernie just smiled at her.

“Charlotte’s inherited the Wolfe metabolism,” she said. “It used to drive Marcus nuts that we both eat more than he does - he's got some Victorian idea about it not being ladylike.”

Charlotte sniggered. “It’s not that, Mum - he just gets mad that he can’t eat like we do without putting weight on.”

“Is your brother the same?” Serena asked.

“He’s a proper Wolfe as well,” Charlotte said. “Dad’s the only one that ever gets tubby, and he gets so annoyed about it.”

“Poor chap - I feel sorry for him, surrounded by you willowy types. I wish I had your metabolism,” Serena sympathised.

Bernie shook her head, a sceptical look in her eye. “Keep up the exercise and your metabolism will adjust itself - I kept telling him that, but it didn’t suit him to believe it. Anyway - you don’t need to worry on that front, you’re perfect as you are. Go on, get that lot down you, woman!”

Even Bernie balked at having a pudding, but Charlotte had been blatantly eyeing up the dessert menu when she was still halfway through her pizza. Bernie ordered a sundae for her, and coffee for herself and Serena. She excused herself for a few minutes, and Serena looked on in puzzlement as Bernie left the restaurant.

“She’s not having a cigarette,” Charlotte offered. 

“What _is_ she doing?” asked Serena.

“No, I mean that’s what she’s doing - not having a cigarette. She gave up smoking when she came home, but she still likes to stand outside holding her last ciggie, to prove to herself that she won’t smoke it. It’s a phase she’s going through,” she said wisely.

Serena suppressed a chuckle, but she liked something about the idea. “Well, if it helps,” she said fondly. “Did your Mum ask you about our Wednesday classes, by the way? If you’d like to come along with us now that there’s a gap in the class?”

Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. “She did. I might come - Daisy thinks it would be a good idea, too. Mum said you suggested it?”

Serena nodded, smiling encouragingly. “I did. It's a nice little group - they’re a friendly bunch.”

Charlotte was playing with her spoon as she waited for her dessert, and she tapped it softly against the glasses on the table: her own, her mother’s and Serena’s.

“Mum really likes you, you know?” She said conversationally.

Serena’s heart gave a little jump, but she replied just as casually. “Does she? Well, good - I like her too. Like I said, it’s a friendly group - and your Mum and I do seem to have hit it off. It’s nice to have made a real friend through the class.”

Charlotte fixed her with a look that made it clear she was fooling no-one.

“You know what I mean. She really _likes_ you. More than likes you. She always talks about you after the classes, and she’s really been looking forward to this, to lunch. Are you messing her around?” she asked bluntly.

“Messing her - no! Of course I’m not. I do like her, but it’s complicated,” she said, not quite able to believe that she was having this conversation with Bernie’s daughter.

“How is it complicated? Either you like her or you don’t - and you’ve just said you do. What’s complicated about that? What’s stopping you from going out with her?”

Serena looked at the girl, a little envious of the clear-minded naivety of youth. “Charlotte, it’s - well, for me it _is_ complicated, I’m afraid. I’ve never been more than friends with a woman before, and it’s a little bit terrifying at my age. I really like her too, but it’s exactly because I _don’t_ want to mess her around that I haven’t said anything. I’d hate to start something and have it go wrong - to find it wasn’t right for me, I mean. I respect your Mum too much for that.”

She looked earnestly at Charlotte, willing her to understand, and glancing anxiously outside to where Bernie stood in the sunshine, an unlit cigarette between her fingertips.

“She’s a big girl,” said Charlotte. “If you change your mind, she can take it. But give her a chance, hey? If you do,” she said slyly, “I’ll come along on Wednesdays…”

Serena laughed at her brazen manipulation. “Oh, you sneaky thing, you! You come along on Wednesday and I’ll consider it, how about that?”

“Oh - you’re going to come on Wednesday? Bravo!” came Bernie’s voice from behind Serena’s chair. “I don’t know what you did to persuade her, Serena - you’ll have to share the secret with me some time. You’ll really come?” She asked, turning to her daughter. Charlotte looked meaningfully at Serena, who made a face but nodded, and Charlotte smiled happily.

“Yes, I’ll come. Can’t wait, actually!”

***

Bernie made sure to arrive early on Wednesday, remembering how spooked Charlotte had been on their first attempt to find everyone already there, and they were chatting quietly with Daisy inside the gym when Serena turned up. She had come deliberately early as well, and Bernie smiled at her, appreciating the gesture.

“Another early bird! Hello, you.”

Serena took off her jacket and hung it by the door. “The others aren’t that far behind - well, Morven and Jasmine have just got here, anyway.”

“I think Zosia’s around here somewhere already, too,” said Daisy.

“Behind the bike sheds again?” Bernie whispered to Serena, who shook her head at the memory.

“Oh, to be young again!” she exclaimed wistfully, only to find Charlotte smirking at her. She was relieved when Daisy led them outside to meet the others and to prepare for their warmup.

Jasmine sat on the wall outside, swinging her legs and telling Morven some tale or other. Mo’s distinctive pink VW Beetle pulled in to the car park, and Nicky hopped out of the passenger side.

“Mo gave me a lift,” she announced somewhat unnecessarily. “Meena’s dad was dropping us off before, but obviously that’s not happening any more.”

“How is Meena?” Daisy asked, genuine concern in her voice.

Nicky rolled her eyes heavenwards.

“Unbearable!” She said. “You’d think she’d lost the use of all her limbs - she’s got everyone running round after her, taking notes for her at college, going to the shops for her, all sorts of stuff.”

“Not you, though?” Bernie asked shrewdly.

Nicky shook her head. “I feel a _little_ bit guilty about it, but no, not me. I’ve had enough of her, to tell the truth. I was really embarrassed the way she was treating people here - I think I’m going to enjoy it much more now. Is that an awful thing to say?”

Mo snorted. “We’re _all_ going to enjoy it more, sunshine. Oh, hello, who’s the mini-me, Bernie?”

Charlotte coped reasonably well with the sudden attention, but she was glad when Zosia jogged outside from the gym, looking suspiciously bright eyed, and they started their warm up. Charlotte fell into step alongside Serena as they jogged round the edge of the car park. 

“So, when are you going to make your move?” She asked, a cheeky glint in her eye.

“When I’m certain it’s the right thing for me to do,” Serena replied sternly. “Don’t forget, my part of the bargain was just to _consider_ it. I’m still considering, all right?”

***

“Right gang, we’re going to get on to what I recall Jasmine referred to as the ninja stuff way back in our first session!” Daisy joked, to Jasmine’s delight. 

“We’ve looked at precision jumps and safe landings, we’ve done some work on rails, and we’ve started to learn how to fall safely. Today we’re starting to think more about how we overcome obstacles, so we’re going to learn a couple of vaults, as well as doing a bit more climbing and swinging. It’s quite a bit to cover, so let’s really get our focus on. We’ll need to do an extra little bit of warming up to prepare our wrists and shoulders for the load they’re going to take today.”

Once they had completed the extra warm up drills, Daisy quizzed them. “Can anyone remember what the step vault looks like? We did it in the second week when we were practising flow. Yes - Zosia?”

“You make a sort of arch on the wall or whatever with your hand and the opposite foot, and then step through it,” she said.

“Sounds about right - want to give it a go?”

Zosia didn’t hesitate, and she put her left hand flat on the wall, brought her right foot up a little wider than shoulder width from her hand, and pushed up to step through with her left foot, landing neatly on the other side of the wall.

“Nicely done!” Daisy said approvingly. “And on the other foot?”

It took Zosia a second or two to work out her coordination, and it was a slightly less graceful move, but she repeated her actions to come back over the wall on her right hand and left foot.

“Excellent! Remember, in parkour we do everything on each side, so I’d like everyone to try five starting with your left hand, then five with the right. Space out along the wall, there’s plenty of room.”

She went along the line making sure everyone was confident with the move before they changed sides to try it on the opposite hand and foot. Bernie and Serena had each got the hang of it pretty well, though it took a little bit of effort for Bernie to get her long legs through the gap.

“Really push up through your shoulder,” Daisy advised her. “You can give yourself a good couple of inches more room that way, as well as making a more stable posture. Experiment with your foot placement, too - see what impact it has if you move it nearer or further from your hand.”

It made a difference, and Bernie was soon vaulting quite comfortably. She looked up along the line of the wall, and smiled to see Nicky chatting happily to Charlotte. 

“Looks like she’s holding her own,” said Serena with a smile. 

“She’s doing amazingly well!” Bernie agreed. “I wouldn’t have believed it of her. I suppose it’s become a familiar place to her by now, and of course she’d already met you and Daisy. Thank you so much for thinking of asking her along, Serena, I can’t tell you how much it means to see her happy like this.”

“Oh, I didn’t do anything,” said Serena, patting her arm. To her surprise, Bernie responded with a hug, brief but fierce, and she barely had time to return the embrace before Bernie pulled away again, suddenly as shy as her daughter.

“I shall make more suggestions if that’s the response I get,” Serena said, and patted Bernie’s arm again. Neither of them noticed Charlotte watching them with a happy grin on her face.

 

Once everyone had managed their five vaults on each side, Daisy had them form a line in front of the wall.

“Let’s take that on a bit further, and get used to running into the vault. Just a couple of steps is fine, and you can start at a walking pace. Think about your approach, how many steps it’s going to take you to reach the wall, which foot you’ll be starting on. We’ll go one at a time, and look to be a little bit quicker on each repetition.”

They were still all at quite different levels of confidence and ability, but everyone managed the vault with relative ease at least on their dominant side.

“We’re going to have a change of pace now before we go back to vaulting,” Daisy interrupted them. “We’re going to head inside now for a spot of climbing. You’ll still be using your wrists and shoulders, but they’ll be pulling instead of pushing.”

They spent a hilarious fifteen minutes making their way from one corner of the rig to the opposite corner without touching the floor, with some people staying close to the ground and others scampering about at the top of the rig. Daisy had given them a friendly but firm reminder of what had happened when Meena failed to show the equipment due respect, and while the group were clearly pushing themselves out of their respective comfort zones, she was confident that none of them were taking unreasonable risks. Jasmine had really taken to the climbing element, and she swung happily among the top rails, hooking her ankle around an upright to pull herself nearer, moving from hand to hand as though she was a kid on monkey bars. Morven was taking a tamer route, inching herself around the lowest bars, but pushing on in spite of a few wobbles, and she was every bit as delighted to have made it to the far corner as Jasmine was, and they gave each other a happy high five as they finished.

Back outside after a quick stretch, Daisy showed them the lazy vault, so called because it looked so easy when performed properly, and it looked as though she really was skimming the wall by the very seat of her pants.

“Watch as I do it super slow,” she said. “I step in on a diagonal to the wall, and my leading hand goes to the top. I swing my inside leg up and jump off the outside leg, swinging both legs over as low as I can manage. Then as I come down, the trailing hand comes down on the wall as I push off. Watch it again from the other side: hand, foot, foot, hand. Or if it helps to think of it this way, left, left, right, right.”

She ran through it twice more, then they all gave it a go, with mixed results. Serena found she could manage it fairly effortlessly leading with her left hand, but couldn’t get it at all on her right, whereas Bernie managed it on both sides, but couldn’t seem to stop herself from kicking up far too high. It was Mo who took to it the most naturally, to her great delight.

“I’ve found my signature move!” she whooped. “Finally! Ah, man - this is so cool! I’m gong to go everywhere like this from now on!”

Serena had been enjoying the classes up well enough until now, but there was something amazing about seeing other people achieve things they hadn’t believed themselves capable of, and the group’s celebrations of each other's successes was a really joyful, moving thing. From Mo’s sudden discovery of an unexpected skill, to Morven’s happiness at her modest climbing achievement, to Charlotte’s breakthrough at joining the group and actually enjoying it, there was so much to celebrate. She felt herself suffused with a deep contentment that could only come from sharing an experience with other people, and she grinned at Bernie after their cool down and stretching.

“I think I’d better buy Fleur some flowers or a nice bottle of something,” she said.

Bernie had been watching Charlotte chatting happily to Nicky and Jasmine, and she turned back to Serena with a smile, but she was puzzled. “Fleur?”

“Oh, the friend who signed me up to this course! It’s really the last thing I would have thought of doing - not my bag at all! - but I’m so glad she pushed me into doing it. It’s the best thing I’ve done in ages!”

Bernie agreed wholeheartedly. “Same here! It’s been so lovely to rediscover movement like this - in a really playful way. Much more fun than rehab, I can tell you! What on earth made your friend think of it for you, though, if it’s not normally your sort of thing?”

Serena hesitated for the merest moment, then said “Well, today’s been all about overcoming obstacles, hasn’t it? I think it’s time for me to overcome my biggest one.”

She swallowed nervously, and now she had Bernie’s full attention.

“The truth is, I’ve come to realise something about myself quite recently - something I'd never expected, and Fleur - she’s a friend at work - she’s been very supportive. She thought coming here might help me meet people.”

She looked at Bernie, willing her to understand.

“Meet people? You don’t strike me as the shy kind, Serena. What is it, a work-life balance problem?”

Serena shook her head impatiently.

“No - not to meet people - to _meet_ people. To meet _someone_.”

She looked at Bernie, her hand going to the collar of her top and fiddling with the hem. She took a deep breath.

“She thought it would help me meet a woman. And I think perhaps I have - haven’t I?”

She let her hand drop, and brushed her fingers against Bernie’s, then tangled them together and gave the slightest little tug. Bernie closed her hand around Serena’s and smiled a slow, soft smile.

“I think perhaps you have, too,” she said, and she slowly leaned forward. She kissed Serena once, twice, and waited, her breath warm against Serena’s lips.

Serena opened her eyes as she drew back, and her smile was the loveliest thing Bernie had ever seen.

“Your friend Fleur?” Bernie said. “Get her the flowers _and_ the wine.”


	6. Challenging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bernie and Serena have overcome the obstacles to their new relationship, but there are still challenges to be met for the whole group. They put everything they have learned into practice, and the group that started together finish together - with one notable exception.

“Mum? Mum!”

Bernie took a step back from Serena, but their hands were still joined as Charlotte jogged over.

“I’m going to go for a pizza with Nicky and Mo - Mo said she’d drop me off at yours afterwards, if that’s alright with you?”

Mo gave a little wave, and Bernie nodded her permission and thanks with a smile.

“Of course it’s alright, darling. I’m glad you’re getting on well with Nicky - I thought you would.”

“Mmm, she’s cool. Mo’s nice too, isn’t she?” Charlotte gave her mother a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, and whispered, “I’m glad you’re getting on well with Serena, too. Don’t blow it!”

Bernie laughed as she gave her a little cuff, sending her scampering our of arm’s reach. “Have a nice time - I’ll see you at home. You’ve got your key?”

“Yes, Mum,” she said. “I won’t wait up!”

Charlotte rejoined the others, and Mo gave Bernie and Serena little wink as she herded her and Nicky to her VW.

“Busted, I’m afraid,” Bernie said, turning back to Serena. “I hope you don’t mind?”

Serena squeezed her hand, still smiling brilliantly. “We were busted before now - Charlotte pretty much asked me what my intentions were at the weekend. She agreed to come along on the understanding that I talked to you about it. I think we can safely say we have her blessing, whatever happens.”

Bernie took her other hand. “What would you _like_ to happen? It sounds as though this is all rather new for you.”

“It is,” Serena said. “It’s new, and a bit scary, but all rather exciting. I think what I'd like to happen is for us to keep getting to know each other, and to just let things happen in their own time. Is that alright?”

“Serena, of course it is. We can carry on as we have been, go for lunch with Charlotte, all of that. But maybe we could make a bit more time just for the two of us as well? Can I take you out for a drink again? Maybe a meal?”

“I’d like that very much,” Serena said, her eyes shining. “Are you free on Friday evening?

Bernie opened the calendar on her phone, tapped at it quickly then showed it to Serena. _Hot date_ , read the new entry for Friday night, and Serena laughed.

“Well, I don’t know about hot, but it’s a date - a proper one.”

Bernie put her phone away, and stood with her hands shoved in her pockets, her foot scuffing the gravel.

“In the meantime, Charlotte has very thoughtfully made it clear that she doesn’t expect my company this evening. How about a drink now? Just a ‘friends going for a pint after a workout’ sort of drink?”

“I'd like that very much,” Serena said. 

***

They were still in their gym gear, so somewhere fancy was off the cards, but they strolled along to the dockside area a stone’s throw from the Hop Shed. They picked a bar that had been built from a couple of shipping containers stacked on top of each other, and they sat upstairs in an uncovered area.

“It’s a long time since I drank beer,” Serena confessed. “It’s not bad, actually - maybe all these new craft breweries are onto something. Better than the stuff we used to drink at medical school, anyway.”

Bernie raised her glass to touch it to Serena’s, and she smiled. “To new experiences, then,” she said, and with a little laugh, Serena echoed the toast.

“I’m having plenty of those at the moment, alright,” she said. “Parkour, beer… you.”

“Us,” Bernie corrected her. “Any new relationship’s different from the one before, isn’t it? It’s new for me, too.”

“Oh? But I thought -”

“That I had a wealth of sapphic experience? Hardly. I had a late life revelation on my last tour in Afghanistan - a colleague. That's what helped me understand myself, I suppose - someone else seeing something in me that I'd always shied away from. Anyway. That all ended when I got shipped home - it was already ending anyway, to tell the truth. I was still married - it was exciting, being with a woman, but it could never have felt right, made me happy, while I was still married.”

“But you’re divorced now? That must have been hard - for all of you.”

Bernie stretched her back out, and exhaled a breath that wasn’t quite a sigh.

“It was, but we got through it. How about you? You said you’d only come to realise it recently, that you’re attracted to women. Was there a watershed moment?”

Serena considered the question. “I don’t know - not exactly. Fleur - the friend that got me coming along to parkour - she’s gay, and she’s always flirted with me, but I do have a tendency to communicate with everyone by flirting, to be honest, so it really wasn’t a big deal. Then one evening we went to the theatre together and she made a proper pass at me. Well, I didn’t know what to do, it was so unexpected, and I dare say I made a bit of an idiot of myself, but she asked why I was so surprised - a ‘gorgeous great bi’ like me - her words, not mine.” She added hastily, and Bernie chuckled.

“Not entirely inaccurate,” she said. “So what, it had never occurred to you, that you might be bisexual?”

“Not once! But somehow her saying it, and being so unfazed by the idea made me mull it over, and I just sort of observed my own interactions with women. It was the silliest thing in the end, that made me realise she probably had a point. I was watching television - some romantic drama or other - and there was a passionate clinch, and I realised that every time I see a kiss on screen, it’s always the woman I look at - the way her head tilts up, the way her neck is exposed, the way her eyes flicker shut…” Without realising she was doing it, she mimicked the posture of a woman being kissed, her own hand just touching the soft skin of her throat.

Bernie cleared her throat. “Yes, I get the picture. And you think that was something you’d always done? Focussed on the woman?”

“Yes!” Serena cried. “Always! And never noticed I was doing it. But that’s definitely the sexy thing about a kiss, on screen, anyway, seeing her pleasure.”

“So, you and Fleur…?”

Serena shook her head. “Oh, no! I didn't think of her like that at all, not even after I realised. She’s lovely, and funny, and smart, but she didn’t float my boat at all, I’m afraid. She took it with perfect equanimity, and ever since then she’s taken it upon herself as a sacred duty to set me up with a woman, but all to no avail,” she said with a shrug.

“Until now,” Bernie interjected, one eyebrow raised almost in question, but she was smiling.

“Until now,” Serena said, with a smile of her own. “So it’s all very new, but I have to say, it feels very nice. I’m looking forward to Friday,” she said with a shy smile.

Serena refused a second drink, citing work in the morning. In truth, she was starting to feel a little unsure of herself. They had agreed that this was not a date: that would wait until Friday, but it felt awfully like one to her, and she didn’t know quite how to ground herself against this odd feeling of excitement and anxiety.

They walked together as far as the taxi rank by the Marriott hotel, and Serena let her fingers meet Bernie’s as they walked.

“You’ll be alright, walking from here?” Serena asked. “Sure you won’t let me drop you off?”

“I like the walk,” Bernie reassured her. “Helps to have that extra little bit of cool down after class, I think. And it’s a beautiful night,” she added, looking up at the evening sky, the stars just coming out.

Serena followed her gaze, and then their eyes met again.

“It is,” she agreed, and she gave their joined hands a little shake. “It really is. I’ll see you on Friday, then?”

Bernie nodded, and they laughed a little at their own mutual bashfulness. It was Bernie who plucked up the courage to lean in and kiss Serena again, letting her lips linger this time. Serena’s breath caught, and she caught at Bernie’s sleeve with her free hand. A moment later, it slid up to the back of Bernie’s neck as she responded, her own lips slightly parted against Bernie’s soft, warm mouth. The revving of an engine nearby broke the spell, and they stood, foreheads touching, hearts thudding.

“Sorry,” Serena said, her face belying the sentiment.

“Are you kidding?” Asked Bernie. “I’ve been wanting to do that for weeks.” She took a deep breath and drew her shoulders back. “Until Friday, then.” She gave Serena’s hand one last squeeze and turned away, walking briskly up the street as Serena watched her, a smile still on her face.

***

“Oh goodness, I can’t remember when I last went on a actual date!” Serena exclaimed, fanning herself. “It’s like being sixteen again!”

“You’re hardly an innocent sixteen year old,” Fleur said drily. “Are you really going to make her be all chivalrous and wait for you to get your head round her being a woman? The Serena I know would be charming her straight into bed if she were an eligible bachelor.”

Serena blushed. “Am I really that bad? I don’t know, I just don’t want to rush it - and I don’t want her to think I’m using her to experiment with - I want to do things properly, make sure it feels right.”

“I didn’t say anything about it being _bad_ to want to sleep with people,” Fleur pointed out. “I don’t see why wanting to sleep with Bernie’s any different. You do want to sleep with her, yes?”

Serena’s blush deepened, and she said without hesitation, “God, yes! I can’t keep my mind off her! I keep thinking about that kiss - and it was pretty chaste, really - but my goodness, if that’s what kissing her is like…” she trailed off, but she didn’t really need to finish the thought.

“So - you fancy the pants off her, she clearly feels the same about you, and I know you’re familiar enough with the mechanics,” Fleur purred.

“I don’t know what makes you think that,” Serena protested. “I told you, this is a first for me.”

“Well, only up to a point. Exhibit A - you were married for goodness knows how long and haven’t been short of company since the divorce. Exhibit B - you are a healthy red blooded woman with _exceptional_ dexterity,” Fleur said, wiggling her fingers. “Exhibit C - need I remind you about your browser history? You know the theory all right, even if you haven’t had a chance to put it into practice. Look. I get that you don’t want to rush things, but don’t keep her - or yourself - waiting too long, okay? Life’s short - make each other happy while you can.”

***

Friday came night came round painfully slowly for Serena. After she had talked to Fleur, she had spent a long time thinking things over, about what her expectations were, about what might be holding her back. She had to confess to herself that she found Bernie enormously attractive, was thrilled by the idea of making love with her, and had made a deeper connection with her than she could ever recall forming with a male lover in such a short time. So, she had to conclude, the sticking point - for there surely was one - was more about how she thought of herself.

As she had explained to Bernie, there had evidently always been some fascination for her in looking at beautiful women, though it had taken her until now to recognise it for what it was. What was the phrase she had heard recently? Internalised homophobia. She did not like to think of herself as homophobic in the least, but she released that she had struggled to reconcile any of the terms available when it came to describing her attraction to women. Fleur had called her a _gorgeous great bi_ , and perhaps that was it - though since confronting these feelings, she hadn’t felt the first twinge of passion with any man. So was she gay? Was she - the word felt strange to her - a lesbian?

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re bi, gay, lesbian or all of the above,” she eventually told herself. “Face the facts: you’re hopelessly attracted to Bernie, and that’s all that matters. Call yourself Berniesexual if it matters that much to have a label, but stop worrying about it and get on with _being_ it, whatever it is!”

**

On the Friday, they met for a drink in a little wine bar near the restaurant. Bernie was already there when Serena arrived, to her immense relief. She really did feel like a teenager on a first date, and she wasn’t sure that she would have been able to stand the tension of waiting for the date alone in the bar. Bernie rose to meet her with a simple kiss to the cheek, but she dragged her fingers down Serena’s arm as she waited for her to sit down, only letting go of her hand with some reluctance. Serena eschewed her usual glass of shiraz for a single glass of prosecco, and Bernie joined her. It felt right to be starting the evening with bubbles, thought Serena, feeling positively celebratory about the turn her life was taking.

Afterwards, Serena could not have told anyone what she had eaten at the restaurant, though she retained a general impression of good food, a warm atmosphere and discreet service. All she truly remembered was the face, the beautiful voice of her dining companion. Bernie was handsome even in an old t-shirt and trainers, she knew that, but tonight, dressed up and sitting in the candlelight with all her attention firmly on Serena, she had never looked more beautiful to Serena. She had done something to her hair that made it fall in graceful, careless waves about her face, and the very lightest dusting of makeup made her dark eyes seem even deeper, warmer.

Serena couldn't remember being so enthralled by every detail of a lover’s appearance before. Bernie was bringing out so many new feelings and urges in her, she could hardly process them, and she had to deliberately ground herself by reaching out and taking Bernie’s hand across the table. They talked for what felt like hours, suspended in a moment where time did not seem to notice them, and Serena was taken by surprise when the waitress brought the bill over.

They walked through the city centre, lively on a Friday night but without the shrill stag and hen night clamour of the weekend, and it felt like a foreign city to Serena, seeing it with the fresh eyes of a woman newly in love. For she knew it, now: she was falling - had already fallen in love with the woman at her side. She slipped her arm through Bernie’s and moved a little closer into her as they walked, and then on impulse, she pulled a little to draw her down a side street. Away from the street lights, she leaned back against the wall, pulling Bernie in to meet her, and they kissed, long and slow. Her arms were around Bernie, holding her closely, and she let one hand slip inside her coat, under her shirt to feel the soft skin of her back, and Bernie moaned into her mouth.

“Serena,” she murmured, her own hands dropping to Serena’s waist and sweeping down. She drew back for breath and they laughed together softly.

“Like a couple of teenagers,” said Serena, her silvering hair and laughter lines doing nothing to dispel the image of a girl in the first bloom of love. Bernie lifted a hand to cup her cheek, and Serena leaned into it to place a slow, warm kiss to her palm. The notes of a languorous melody spilled out from the bar they had just passed, and Bernie tore herself away from the embrace with one last kiss.

“Live music! Shall we? And maybe a nightcap?”

Taking Serena by the hand again, she led the way round the corner and into the bar, where a jazz trio was giving an intimate set of standards. They found an empty sofa in a dark corner, and Bernie went to the bar, returning with a glass of whiskey and a shiraz for Serena. They sat listening dreamily to the music, and Serena let her head rest on Bernie’s shoulder as she put an arm around her. It wasn’t long before the seductive music took effect, though, and by the time their glasses were empty, Bernie murmured through a kiss, “I think we’d better leave before we get thrown out, don’t you?”

They walked slowly now, reluctant to let the evening end, but there was only so far one could walk in the city centre without coming across a taxi rank.

“I’ve had the most wonderful evening, Serena - thank you.”

Serena nodded, her eyes as bright as her smile. “Me too - oh, me too! Thank you, Bernie, it’s been perfect.”

They stood as awkwardly as any new lovers, neither of them wanting to leave the other. Bernie forced herself to speak. 

“So - I’ll see you at class on Wednesday?”

But Serena tugged her hand. “I was rather hoping to see you again before then. How about breakfast?”

Bernie looked at her uncertainly. “You want to meet up for breakfast?”

“No, Bernie. I want you to get up tomorrow morning, make me breakfast, and bring it to me in bed. Does that sound okay to you?”

Bernie’s laugh was a soft, joyful thing, breathy and warm. “That sounds very okay indeed. You said you wanted to take things slowly, though. There’s no rush, you know - we can wait if you want to.”

“That’s sweet, really - thank you. But I’m pretty sure that what I actually said was that I wanted to let things take their own time - and they have done, haven’t they? I don’t want to wait, Bernie. I want you to take me home, and take me to bed. Unless _you’d_ rather wait, of course?”

Letting out a shaky breath, Bernie shook her head emphatically.

“I don’t want to wait another minute. My place is a fifteen minute walk from here - or we could get a taxi?”

Serena strode straight up to the cab at the front of the rank, pulling Bernie along behind her. By the time Bernie had given the driver her address, Serena was already established in the back with her seatbelt fastened. Bernie followed suit a moment later, and as she pulled the car door shut, she leaned over to kiss Serena again, tearing herself away for just long enough to speak to the cabbie.

“Drive!”

***

Serena woke in the small hours, confused for a brief moment caught in that not-quite-asleep, not-quite-awake state. Her bedroom was lighter than usual - had she not shut the curtains? And then all the little differences slid into her consciousness and she remembered where she was; who she was with; what they had done. She rolled over quietly to find Bernie turned towards her, her face so soft and relaxed in sleep. She gazed at her in the half light, her eyes prickling at the beauty of the woman and the moment. How tender Bernie had been last night, despite their desperation for each other: how careful and considerate - but how very fearless she was, too. She had known that it was Serena’s first time with a woman, but after giving Serena that brief chance to slow things down she had not patronised her by asking if she was sure, if they might be going too fast. She had understood and interpreted every signal Serena had given her with her body, her actions, her undisguised desire, and she had responded surely and joyfully.

And there, for Serena, was the difference. She thought that perhaps it was because she was with Bernie, rather than with a woman, that things felt so fundamentally changed for her: after all, the simple mechanics were not so very different. She had always supposed that for two women it must be a case of taking turns, rather than finding satisfaction together, in the act of giving pleasure as well as in receiving it, but she had found herself unable to stop touching Bernie, exploring her body with her hands, her mouth, her eyes. Her whole body had sung at the sight and the sensations of loving Bernie, and lying awake now, the song still echoed in her bones and in her blood.

She knew she should let Bernie sleep, but she couldn’t help herself from reaching out to stroke the high curve of her cheekbone, trace the soft line of her eyebrow, and Bernie’s eyes opened slowly, a smile that had been waiting to bloom spreading across her sleepy face. 

“Is it morning?” Bernie mumbled, but Serena shook her head.

“No, it’s early still. Go back to sleep.”

But Bernie’s fingers had come up to tangle with hers, and catching her own scent, Serena rumbled low in her throat and shifted closer, taking Bernie’s fingers in her mouth, and they moved lazily together again.

***

Breakfast was a leisurely affair, punctuated with kisses, soft caresses and a lot of laughter. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wash the sheets,” Serena said. “I’ve got crumbs everywhere.”

“I was going to have to wash the sheets anyway…” Bernie laughed.

Eventually the realities of everyday life started to encroach on the morning, and Serena reluctantly got ready to head home before going in to work for her shift.

“Listen, I’m serious about the trauma consultation, you know. Do you think you will come over to AAU at some point? I’ve been drip feeding our CEO with the idea of stumping up for at least one trauma bay - if I could dangle a distinguished trauma surgeon under his nose, we might be onto a good thing…”

Bernie beamed. “Oh, name the day and time. And if you really reckon there’s scope for it, I’ve had enough of locum work for a lifetime, I think. But why don’t we see what the next few weeks holds in store for us first - for you and me, I mean, and take it from there. Just for now, I’d like us to see where this is going without the complication of our working together - is that okay?”

Serena felt so happy she could almost cry. She could see how keen Bernie was to find a position in her specialism, and the thought of setting up her own trauma unit, even on so small a scale, was obviously tempting in the extreme. But she was willing to put all of that on hold for the sake of establishing their new relationship.

“Well,” she said, “I know where I’d _like_ this to go - but you’re right. To be continued? Good. Now - I wish I didn’t, but I’ve really got to go. Will I see you before Wednesday?” There was that thrill again, the uncertainty of a new relationship, not wanting to seem too keen, but wanting more than anything to spend all her time with Bernie.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow night, shall I?”

Serena kissed her once more, and had to force herself to step back from the embrace.

“I finish at six. See you then.”

***

After a worryingly exhaustive warm up, Daisy gathered the troops outside the gym, and she was practically bouncing with energy.

“This is always one of my favourite parts of the course - I’m so excited for you guys!” She said. “We’re going to put together everything you’ve learned over the last five weeks to meet a grand challenge,” Daisy said with a grin. “You remember the very first session we did together? What was the first skill you learned?”

“Precision jumps,” Jasmine said confidently.

“Even before that?”

“Oh! QM - the crawling thing?” Mo piped up.

“Quadrilateral movement!” Morven pulled out of her memory triumphantly.

“That’s the one! So we’re going to start with that. Each one of you is going to QM along the path, round the end of the wall, along the side of the wall on the grass and then vault over to start again - three times. The first lap forwards, the second sideways - and the last?”

A pained groan rose from the group, and it was Nicky who said, “You’re going to make us do it backwards, aren't you?”

She laughed. “Well, I’m not going to _make_ you do it, but I’m challenging you to _try_ it. Do what you think you can manage - then try and do a bit more! Everyone happy with what we’re doing? OK, one last shake out of the wrists - and three, two, one - go!”

Jasmine led them out, as always throwing herself into the task with more enthusiasm than skill, but Serena was pretty sure she wasn’t the only one to be be thankful for Jasmine’s sporadic progress, as it provided a chance to rest every minute or so. On the second lap, where they were to move sideways on all fours, Jasmine got herself completely tangled up, and Zosia took over the lead, alternating between two hands and two feet in a rhythmic swinging pattern that most of the others struggled to emulate. At Daisy’s prompting, Bernie took over as lead on the final lap, and she set a blistering pace as she crawled backwards, keeping her knees low to the ground but never touching, which was more than could be said for Serena, who found herself giving in to gravity more than once.

As Bernie step vaulted over the wall, marking the end of her challenge, she saw that Mo was yet to round the corner at the other end, and was having to stop every few steps to rest her shoulders. She loped up to her, and cheering her on, she dropped back to the ground to join her for the final stint. One by one, the other six women finished their lap, with varying degrees of elation and exhaustion, but without exception, as soon as they saw Mo still going, they all jogged to catch up and join the little knot of women. Charlotte was the last to hop over the wall, and she had to practically sprint to get round to meet Mo and her supporters in time to join in, but to Daisy’s delight, they finished as a team, Mo just half a length in front. Mo insisted on clambering over the wall, and a mighty cheer rang round the car park, and hugs and high fives followed.

“Ah, you guys! You didn’t have to do that!” Mo protested but it was evident from her grin, and her hastily wiped eyes, that it had meant a great deal for her to have had their support.

“Well done, everyone!” Katie called. “Awesome work - and the first rule of parkour in action: we start together - we finish together. How did that feel?”

A cacophony of voices rose with cries of “Awesome!” - “Knackering!” - “Hideous!” - “Brilliant!”

She laughed. “All of the above, hey? Well, don’t sound so pleased with yourselves, ladies - that’s just the first of three challenges! Who wants to know what’s next?”

She gave them a couple of minutes to rest and recover, and to grab a quick drink while she explained the second part of the challenge to them.

“The second week we met, we did a mini-challenge at the end - remember?”

Serena had particular reason to remember that challenge fondly, as she recalled watching Bernie complete round after round of seemingly effortless pull-ups.

“Well, this time, it’s a group challenge: you’re going to work together to complete twenty minutes dead hang. But don’t worry, you’re going to spread the load between yourselves, and we’re going to have two rails on the go at the same time, so all we need to see is at least two people hanging at every second of a timed ten minutes - got it?”

“Sorry - is it ten minutes or twenty? I’m confused!” Serena was still getting her breath back and wasn’t convinced that quite enough oxygen was getting to her brain just yet.

“I’m going to set the timer for ten minutes, and having two people hanging on means we get twenty minutes hanging time - got it? OK. so as soon as you feel yourself starting to lose your grip, or needing a rest, call the next person in and wait for them to hop up before you drop. Some of you might be happy to do a couple of minutes, some might just want to do a few seconds. Doesn’t matter how much or how little you manage, as long as everyone has a go and you achieve it as a group. Come on, back into the gym and we’ll get started.”

The quested up in one line behind Bernie and Zosia, who had been nominated to go first by a pretty much unanimous vote. Of the remaining traceuses, they had been the two strongest performers in the original challenge four weeks ago, and had managed the QM without too much difficulty. 

“Don’t feel you have to be all noble about it though, guys - part of the challenge is making sure everyone takes a share and pushes themselves out of their comfort zone - so if this challenge is easy for you, give some time to someone who’ll really benefit from the extra challenge! OK - ready? Three, two one - go!”

Bernie and Zosia jumped up to grasp the bar above them, and Bernie held on for a little over a minute before she called out for the next person to take their place. Morven needed a bit of a leg up to take hold of the bar, but once she had a hold of it, she did far better than she had done a few weeks ago, and more than twenty seconds had elapsed by the time she yelled, “I’m slipping!”

Each of them took two or three turns hanging, and there was some hilarity over the changeovers, with people leaping to catch the bar even as the previous challenger’s hands slipped off, and by the time Katie blew the whistle, they were almost disappointed to stop.

“Great work, ladies! Wow, so much grit and determination! Give yourself a pat on the back, if your hands aren’t too sore!”

They trailed over to the reception area of the gym, stretching out their shoulders and shaking their sore hands. Hanging from cold scaffolding rails took its toll, and they were starting to find after six weeks that they were building up callouses at the base of each finger, particularly where they wore rings.

“We’ve got something really special for you as a grand finale,” Daisy told them. “There’s a great mantra I heard at a coaching session I went to a while back, and I’ve tried to make it a kind of personal philosophy. It’s just this: _be strong to be useful_. The kind of conditioning we do as parkour practitioners makes us strong not just in terms of our muscles, like lifting weights does, but it gives us practical and mental skills as well. We learn movements, we learn how to adapt our bodies to the environment, and we learn judgement and determination. All of those things put together make us exactly the kind of people you want to have around in an emergency, so we’re going to have our very own emergency evacuation scenario, and we’re all going to show that we can be strong to be useful.”

She stood with her back to the door of the gym, gesturing inside with one arm.

“OK - here’s the bad news. The gym’s on fire! We need to get everyone out - but half of you have been overcome by the smoke and need help escaping. The other half are going to be your rescuers. They’re going to carry you, either on their own or in groups, out of the gym, and pass you over to the paramedic on the other side of the wall. She’ll tick you off as being rescued, and you’ll come back into the gym to rescue someone else. Ladies, meet your paramedic, the wonderful Frieda Petrenko!”

Frieda emerged from the changing room clad in an approximation of a paramedic uniform, with green overalls with the sleeves ripped off to show her muscled arms, and a hi-vis vest hanging off one shoulder. Serena, who had spent more time at the gym than any of the others, was pretty sure it was the first time she’d seen her wearing any colour other than black.

“Hi,” she deadpanned. “My name’s Frieda, I’ll be your paramedic this evening. Try not to die. Too much paperwork.”

They laughed, but she remained completely straight faced and rolled her eyes. Mo laughed all the louder and said what everyone was thinking:

“So Zosia’s going to volunteer to get rescued every time, right? _Oh, help me, Frieda, I need mouth to mouth!_ ” she cried, clasping her hands beneath her chin like a silent movie heroine. Zosia blushed, but laughed with good grace, knowing that she and Frieda had been well and truly busted, and even Frieda’s mouth twitched in what _might_ have been a brief smile.

“Victims can be conscious enough to put an arm round their rescuer’s neck, or you might decide you’re going to be unconscious, so you’re a dead weight to be picked up without being able to help your rescuer at all. We’re going to run through a few potential techniques you might want to employ that will let you rescue people with the minimum risk to you or to them.”

Katie, Daisy and Frieda showed them safe techniques for piggy backs, fireman’s lifts, a lift Serena remembered learning at Guides as a queen’s chair, and they demonstrated ways that two or three people could share the load of an inert body. Satisfied that they understood the task and could manage the techniques safely, Daisy revealed the final element of the challenge to them.

“We’re looking to make one hundred rescues, and you’ve got thirty minutes to do it in. Freida’s going to keep a count of the rescues, I’ll be checking the time, and Katie and I will be roaming around to make sure everyone’s all right.”

She asked for four rescuers to follow her outside. Nicky, Jasmine, Morven and Charlotte were quick to put their hands up, and out they went with Daisy, Frieda jogging out to the far side of the wall with a clipboard to keep count of successful rescues. The remaining four waited in the gym, taking bets on who would try and rescue whom.

“It’s going to have to be a team effort to rescue me,” Mo said cheerfully, and Serena admitted that she thought she might be a bit much for the slender youn women out there as well. “Well, I could give you a piggy back, no sweat,” Mo protested. They were ready and waiting for the air horn that Daisy had taken outside to mark the start of the challenge, but before she could sound it, they heard the rich rumble of what sounded like an expensive car, a loud thudding bass, and the scattering of gravel from the car park as the vehicle stopped.

“Nicky!” called an all too familiar voice. “Nicky, come on - we’ve got a party to go to!”

Looking at each other with a sinking feeling, the three older women in the gym moved over to the door followed by Charlotte, and sure enough, there was Meena leaning out of a gleaming SUV which bore a number plate that had clearly been bought for her, though an older man, presumably her poor beleaguered father, was in the driving seat. Nicky was standing dumbfounded, looking at her in disbelief. Serena was glad to see that Jasmine and Morven had immediately moved to flank her, and Zosia was eying Meena very coolly indeed.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Nicky told her. “It’s Wednesday night - you know I've got parkour. I’m not going to any party.” She shrugged and turned away, making it clear that the conversation was over, but Meena had different ideas.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous - we’re going to Parveen’s - come on, it’ll be brilliant! Xav’s going too - we’ve got to be there!”

“What's wrong with you, Meena? I said I’m not going. Like I’m going to blow off the last class to come to some tacky party so I can watch you sticking your tongue down Xav’s throat! You’ll have to go on your own.”

Meena pouted, and for all that she was sitting in a car, it looked very much as though she had just stamped her foot.

“I can’t go on my own! Who’s going to get my drinks for me? Who’s going to help me when I need the loo? I can’t do any of that stuff on my own - god, you're so selfish!”

She had been firm but reasonably polite until now, but even mild mannered, placid Nicky had her limits, and she had reached them.

“ _Me_ , selfish? Have you ever listened to yourself, Meena? You expect me to ditch my last class - and we’re right in the middle of something right now, actually - so I can come and pour your drinks and wipe your arse - sorry, Mr Chowdhury - for what? Why would I even _do_ that?”

Meena’s lower lip wobbled, but Nicky knew crocodile tears when she saw them, and Meena’s protestation that “You’re supposed to be my _friend!_ ” fell on deaf ears.

“You think that’s what being a friend is? You’ve got no idea. How much of a friend do you think you’ve been? You dragged me along to this, and you knew I didn’t want to come, even though I’m loving it now - sorry, Daisy - and you made it really hard for me to make friends here because you were so horrible to everyone. It’s been so much nicer since you stopped coming! And now that I’m having a brilliant time with it, you expect me to drop everything just so I can be your skivvy at a party - and I can’t _stand_ Parveen, she’s so shallow. And anyway, even if we didn’t have a class tonight, I’m busy anyway.”

Meena laughed unkindly. “You? Busy? Are you trying to tell me you’ve got a social life? You’d never leave the house at all if I didn’t let you hang around with me. I won’t invite you again,” she warned.

“Good! I never wanted to hang around with you anyway - I just felt sorry for you because you seemed really lonely. You can hang out with Parveen now - you deserve each other. And I have got a social life, actually - we’re all going out for diner after the class. Daisy suggested I invite you, but I didn’t because I knew you’d only spoil it.”

Nicky was on a roll and prepared to keep going, but Daisy stepped in at this point before things got any uglier, and moving between the two girls, she said, “It’s good to see that you’re feeling well enough to go out, Meena. Enjoy your party - but Nicky’s right: we’re about to start our last challenge now, so unless you want to join in as a rescue victim, you’ll need to move the car now.” She ducked down to make eye contact with the driver, who was doing his best to be invisible, and said with a smile, “Would you mind, Mr Chowdhury?”

“Not at all,” he mumbled, looking relieved, and without waiting for Meena to pull her head back in to the car, he stepped on the accelerator. Nicky, to her credit, did _try_ not to laugh at the squawk that Meena let out, but she was only human, and she let out a great snort. The last thing Meena heard as she wound up the window was a cheer going up, and glancing back with a scowl on her face, she saw the whole group gathered around her former friend, clapping her on the back as though she had just won _Strictly_.

 

“Are you ok, Nicky? Do you want to take a few minutes?”

Nicky shook her head at Daisy, a great smile on her face. “No - let’s do it - that felt _amazing!_ ”

The challenge got underway, and for the next thirty minutes, there was a steady to and fro between the gym and Frieda’s medical station. She called out at every landmark as they achieved twenty five, then fifty rescues. 

“That’s halfway for the rescues - but the bad news is you’ve used up more than half your time - you’re going to need to step it up to reach a hundred in the time!”

This was hard news to hear for the tiring women, but they gritted their teeth and doubled their efforts. Mo, who had enjoyed three rescues so far courtesy of Serena and Zosia’s team work, had a plan.

“Right! No more rescues for me now - I’m a rescuer, plain and simple. I can keep giving piggy backs all night. Morven, Jasmine - you’re the lightest - you’re permanent victims from now on. Bernie? How’s your back holding up? OK - you’re a victim, too. Serena - are you alright to carry from now on? No offence, but you and me, we’re the pack horses here, right?”

Serena ruefully agreed, and without further ado, they started with Mo’s strategy. Only Zosia, Nicky and Charlotte swapped roles from time to time now, and Mo’s strategy had them racing towards the cut off time with renewed energy and greater efficiency. Freida called out “Ninety five rescues!” just as Daisy started counting down the last sixty seconds, and with dismay, Bernie and Serena looked at each other in the realisation that it just wasn't possible in the time.

It was Charlotte who screamed at them to run for it, and as she saw Mo carrying Jasmine; Zosia with Morven and Serena carrying Bernie in a piggy back, instead of picking Nicky up, she yelled at her. “You take Daisy!” As she herself practically rugby tackled Katie and ran with her in a fireman’s lift, heaving her over the wall into Mo’s arms. Nicky was barely a second behind her with Daisy, who was shrieking with laughter but who somehow managed to check her watch and sound the air horn as she landed in an inelegant heap on the far side of the wall, and at the self same moment that Frieda cried out “One hundred!”

Nicky and Charlotte were gasping for breath, and their rescued victims, who had had a relatively restful few minutes, lifted them high on their shoulders and cheered them.

“Oh. My. God,” wheezed Daisy. “That was amazing work! Woohoo! I don’t think I’ve known any group cut it quite so fine and still manage it - you guys rock!”

“We wouldn't have done it with Mo’s plan,” said Serena. “You saved the day by actually stopping to think about it.” Mo grinned, and although she gave a little shrug, she was inclined to agree.

“What can I say? I’m a genius.”

Nicky laughed, but she said, “And if Charlotte hadn’t though of finding extra victims we’d have been one rescue short - she was brilliant!”

“I know I’m biased, but you’re right,” said Bernie proudly. “We nearly didn’t even try that last rescue, we were so sure we couldn’t do it. She yelled at me the way I used to yell at her!” She opened her arms wide and hugged her shy, anxious daughter tightly, so proud of her for overcoming her fears and joining the class, and then taking control of a hopeless situation to ensure success for the whole group.

Daisy’s grin was as wide as anyone’s.

“Awesome, awesome work, ladies! Really fantastic. Think back six weeks, when you didn’t know a lazy vault from a laché - and now look at you! You’ve achieved amazing things, and I’m so, so proud of you. Now, let’s finish up with a cool down and really good stretch out before we hit the town - everyone still up for dinner? Ha, I thought you would be!”

The stretching session was even more thorough than usual as they had exerted pretty much every muscle in their bodies. Daisy ended the session by having them lie flat out on the grass, eyes closed, and talked them through a short guided meditation which left Serena feeling utterly blissed out. She turned her head to one side and thought for a moment that Bernie had fallen asleep, but she was simply soaking in the moment, eyes closed and a beatific smile on her face. As her eyes fluttered open, she turned her head to look at Serena, and she stretched out a hand to meet hers. They lay side by side on the grass, hand in hand in a moment of perfect stillness and happiness.

It was Mo, of course, who spotted them.

“Hey, hey - what’s this? Another little romance blossoming right under our noses? You two kept that quiet!”

If they had, it was certainly not quiet any more, and Serena pushed her self up to sitting as the others crowded round, demanding details.

“Do you mind?” laughed Bernie. “My daughter’s here - don’t embarrass us both!”

But Charlotte did not seem the least bit embarrassed. “Don’t mind me,” she said airily. “Can’t be more embarrassing than hearing you the other night…”

A riotous laugh went up, and Serena's cheeks were aflame as Bernie leant her a hand as she scrambled to her feet. Bernie growled affectionately at her daughter. “I think I preferred it when you were too shy to speak! I’ll get you some earplugs.”

Zosia, ever the dark horse, simply raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at Serena and said “Nice work,” with a devilish little smile, and went on through to the changing room.

The rest of them followed on after her, and they chatted excitedly as they made themselves slightly more respectable for their meal. Morven piped up, “Oh! I forgot to ask - does anyone mind if my boyfriend joins us, just for a drink before we eat? I haven’t seen much of him this week because he got called in to work on his day off.”

This was the first anyone but Jasmine had heard of a boyfriend, and there was some gentle ribbing, but no-one minded - after all, Frieda would be coming along, and as Daisy pointed out, her partner Dan would be glad of another bloke there. Dan had been a steady presence in the background throughout the course, and the women were glad of the chance to get to know him better.

“And if you choose to carry on with parkour as I hope you will, though I say it as shouldn’t, Dan’s a great coach - he takes our intermediate classes with Katie. Do any of you think you might want to carry on?”

The response was a unanimous and resounding positive, though Morven and Mo both thought they might benefit from repeating the beginners’ course before they thought about going on any further.

“No problem - lots of people do that. Or we can just keep going with this group on a Wednesday evening - we haven’t got another beginners’ course scheduled until next term now. We’ll sort something out that suits all of you, anyway.”

They made their way _en masse_ to the restaurant - the same pizza place that Serena had been to with Bernie and Charlotte the previous weekend, and as they neared, Morven gave a little squeal and darted ahead, flinging her arms around a slim young man waiting outside. He picked her up and swung her round, evidently as happy to see her as she was to see him, and it was only when he set her down and held her at arms’ length, a besotted look on his face, that Bernie saw who it was.

“ _Cameron?_ What on earth - you mean to say that Morven is your mystery woman?” 

She had that odd sensation of two parts of her life colliding, but it was rather wonderful, and laughing joyfully, she bounded up to give them both a crushing hug, and the three of them laughed and talked over each other in a riot of happiness.

“Morven, why on earth didn’t you tell me?”

“How come you know Cameron?”

“Mum! What’s going on - is that _Charlotte_ over there as well?”

The rest of the group looked on bemused as the three of them disentangled themselves, and Cameron shook his head as if to clear it.

“I thought you two had your parkour thing tonight - what are you doing down here?”

Morven blushed, and stammered a little as she said, “Yeah.. about that, Cam… you know my aerobics class? Well, it’s kind of… not really aerobics. I’ve been doing parkour, but I felt really stupid about it, so I just sort of played it down a bit. Oh my God, though, is Bernie really your Mum?”

Cameron scratched his head. “What? Yeah, of course she is. Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, why did you feel stupid about it - it’s brilliant!” And he hugged her again.

“Right, you lot!” Serena had been looking on with amusement and affection, exchanging a fond but exasperated look with Charlotte, but there were hungry mouths to be fed. “You can discuss all of this over a pizza. Inside, now, come along!” And she led the way into the restaurant, grabbing Bernie’s hand as she went, pulling her along in her wake.

The group piled inside and took a few minutes to get seated at the table reserved for them, a waiter hurriedly adding an extra setting for Cameron. Serena was full of happiness as Bernie introduced her to her son, and she sat looking at her new lover surrounded by her children, happy and laughing, and at all their new friends. With a little twinge, she realised something was missing.

“Sod it,” she muttered, and without giving herself time to change her mind, she jumped up from the table, striding outside to where Bernie had Not Been Having A Cigarette last time, pulling her phone out as she went. When she came back in, there was a slightly shell shocked, _what-have-I-done_ look on her face, and Bernie leaned over.

“You okay?” She asked.

Serena nodded. “Fine. I just had to make a quick call. It’s nothing.” But she seemed on edge, somehow, and her eyes kept darting to the door. After a while, she settled down a bit, but seemed rather deflated. Bernie kept an eye on her, and a hand on her thigh. The course had been tremendous fun, she thought, but there was so often an anticlimactic feeling when things ended - perhaps that was what Serena was feeling now.

But twenty minutes later, it all became clear. The door swung open, and a young woman with a determined look that seemed familiar to Bernie surveyed the restaurant and homed in on their table. She marched over with a truculent air.

“Mum? What’s so important that I had to miss half of _Game of Thrones?_ ” She stood with a hand on her hip, looking for all the world as though she were the parent and Serena the child.

“Elinor! You came! Oh, how marvellous. Here, grab a chair and join us.” Their waiter was already on his way with another chair, but Elinor ignored him.

“I’m not staying - I’d just got to a really good bit. What did you want that you couldn’t say over the phone?”

Serena patted the chair. “Come on, sit down. And I happen to know you’re watching it as a box set - it will still be there later. I wanted you to meet my friends, that’s all. Come and have dinner with us - you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

“Meet your friends? What for?”

Serena took her daughter’s hand and tugged her down to sit next to her. “Because they’re important to me, of course. And I particularly wanted you to meet Bernie: Bernie, this is my daughter, Elinor. Elinor - this is Bernie, and Charlotte and Cameron are her children.”

“Oh my God, you got me here so I could meet your new best friend? That’s so -” 

But Serena did not let her finish.

“More than a best friend, actually. Bernie and I are together.” And she sat back, her hand raised in that familiar gesture at her throat.

“What do you mean, _together?_ ” But a look of horrified realisation dawned on her face, and she shook her head. “Oh my God, Mum, you’re not serious? First the keep fit rubbish, and now this - you’re, what, a lesbian now? God, this is so embarrassing!” The exaggerated eye roll was oddly reminiscent of the late lamented Meena, and it took every ounce of self control for Bernie to stay silent.

Predicting a storm, Cameron tactfully turned to Morven and his sister. “Guys, introduce me to your friends?” And he stood, leading them to the other end of the table.

Serena, though, was remarkably calm in the face of her daughter’s all too familiar stroppiness.

“What, it’s all right for your dad to have a new girlfriend, but not for me? At least mine is the same age as me! I’m afraid you’re going to have to get used to the idea of your boring old mum having a life of her own - and one that’s much more fun than it used to be!”

Elinor opened her mouth to reply, but at just that moment Jasmine, who was rather less tactful than Cameron, passed them as she came back from the toilet, and exclaimed, “Oh, wow - are you Serena’s daughter? Your mum is so cool! I’d love to have a mum like yours. She's literally the best. Well, her and Bernie. Bernie’s awesome, too. Have you told her about the pull ups? You’ve got to see her doing pull ups! Come and sit down here with me and Nicky - tell us all about your Mum!”

Before she knew what was happening, a bewildered-looking Elinor was being pulled by the hand to go and sit at the far end of the table with the other youngsters in a storm of Jasmine’s puppyish enthusiasm, and a blissful hush fell over the end of the table, where Serena and Bernie now sat alone.

“My lovely daughter,” said Serena drily, and Bernie smiled sympathetically. 

“I suppose it’s a bit of a shock, discovering your mum has a girlfriend. Cameron and Charlotte will have some stories to swap with her, I dare say - they might be able to help her get her head round it - if she lets them get a word in edgeways.”

“Oh, she’ll be all right,” Serena said easily. “If she can cope with Edward’s child bride, she can cope with you. It won’t be long before she starts claiming it was all her idea, you’ll see.”

They looked down the table, at their friends and their families, all jumbled together and laughing as though they had known each other all their lives, even Elinor, who Morven had drawn into conversation about the show she was missing for the sake of being here.

“It’s not been a bad six weeks, has it?” Bernie said, smiling softly at Serena, who beamed back at her.

“Pretty much the best, I’d say. I was so cross with Fleur for signing me up to this, but look at us now - you and me; the things we’ve done; the friends we’ve made… Maybe I should sign _her_ up for the next course!”

“And don't forget the strength and stamina we’ve developed…” Bernie teased. “We’ll be aching tomorrow - how about a long, luxurious massage tonight?”

Serena gazed back at her with a heated gaze, the hubbub at the other end of the table fading from her consciousness. 

“Well,” she said, “The key to parkour is adaptability and flexibility…”


End file.
